How Do You Solve a Problem Like Dick Cheney?

To solve a problem, you have to know what causes the problem. For example, to understand Dick Cheney you have to understand that his name is Richard but people call him Dick for a reason. To understand Ann Coulter, you have to understand what it must be like to go through life with a ginormous foot in your mouth. To understand Rush Limbaugh, you have to understand how a frontal lobotomy works. To understand George W. Bush, you have to…. well there really is no understanding that. But I am sure you get the point.

As Americans, many of us just can’t understand why terrorists from the Middle East would want to destroy us. The very idea of their hating us so much is almost unfathomable. Never mind that we have been occupying their homelands for more than 60 years. Never mind that today we have dozens of “enduring” military bases just in Iraq and dozens more in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Oman, Qatar… Is that really so terrible? We’re just there looking to send back a little oil to help run our cars and our factories back home. Why do they hate us so much? I don’t know, but I wish it was a problem we could finally solve.

Speaking of problems I wish we could solve… What are we going to do with all these illegal immigrants coming into our country uninvited? The nerve, I tell you. The very nerve of it just gets to me. The idea that those Mexicans would come here in hopes of earning money to send to their families back home is just too much to bear. Before you know it, they’ll want to build a military base. I mean can you imagine if those Mexicans were to start arriving inside tanks rather than inside trunks. Imagine if they start taking our land rather than our landscaping jobs. The very thought just makes me want to blow something up…

Is the whole situation becoming a little more clear? People in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones. It ruins the view and makes for a lot of sharp edges.

We need to educate ourselves if we are to finally understand our problems and how to solve them. Did you know that the US operates and/or controls between 700 and 800 military bases worldwide. These facilities include more than 850,000 different buildings and equipment. The underlying land surface is about 30 million acres – almost a third the size of California. (Interestingly enough, the Hispanic population in California is about a third of the state’s population.) The total land area occupied by US military bases domestically and internationally is about 2,202,735 hectares, which makes the Pentagon one of the largest landowners worldwide.

Margaret, I don’t even know what a hectare is. Do you? So what does all this mean? To most of us – probably nothing. And that’s the problem. I mean it. Really.

A RESPONSE FROM MARGARET:

Oh Helen, dear, I wish I could help you with your problems, but I can’t. We don’t have Mexicans in Maine. Now, French Canadians are a whole other matter. You can’t swing my neighbor’s cat without hitting seven or eight of those people. Not to bother, Helen, we take all kinds here in Maine. Mexican, French Canadian, Asian, even a Korean or two. We don’t care. They are all welcome. We are even going to make the gays legal! God Bless America.

“Speaking of problems I wish we could solve… What are we going to do with all these illegal immigrants coming into our country uninvited? The nerve, I tell you. The very nerve of it just gets to me. The idea that those Mexicans would come here in hopes of earning money to send to their families back home is just too much to bear. Before you know it, they’ll want to build a military base. I mean can you imagine if those Mexicans were to start arriving inside tanks rather than inside trunks. Imagine if they start taking our land rather than our landscaping jobs. The very thought just makes me want to blow something up”

LOL!! I welcome immigrants and have to say, we INVITED them here, by neglecting to enforce immigration laws. We should be punishing the business people who do this, as well as those who allowed it to continue, not the immigrants. They are just the pawns in a scheme to cover up all kinds of things the government and business world are guilty of.

I say for every unproductive, native-born criminal we have here, we should send them to a penal colony and allow one immigrant in exchange. The unproductive criminals can support themselves, grow their own food, fight among themselves. Mexicans and other Latinos (most of them) have one of the highest work ethics in the world, and they actually enrich our country, except mostly only the already-wealthy get most of the money by exploiting, as does our government.

They appreciate our country, while many of our own do not. Their country is a dangerous place, I have strong ties to their community and I could tell you about incidents that would scare your pants (or bra) off.

Love you gals, you are soooo wise. You’ve hit the nail on the head. We invade other countries etc. but then don’t pretend we aren’t exploiting those who “invade” ours.

Does anyone stop to think, for every Mexican working here, they prevent several more from coming by sending money home? (money that is usually taxed and has FICA paid in, but for which refunds and Soc. Sec. claims are never made.

That’s one reason the government allows it to go on, to shore up the Soc. Sec. coffers. DUH!

People are so quick to jump on the Latinos, but really, it’s our own stinking fault.

Don’t blame a Mexican, blame their employer who exploits them and us in the process.

Smaller cars are only less safe because we allowed ourselves to build tanks and put them out on the road as if they were just another family car. Lincoln Navigators, Hummers and such are beyond rediculous and I have yet to meet a family that actually needed one rather than just wanted one.

James, I am sorry that you interpreted my comments as an attack on your character. Not intended. You asked a lot of questions that in order for me to answer I would have to spend a lot of time researching as I do not have the ability of recall that one needs to debate with facts. My shortcoming. My brother happens to love playing the Devil’s Advocate, I don’t enjoy the game.

Devil’s advocate

In common parlance, a devil’s advocate is someone who takes a position, sometimes one he or she disagrees with, for the sake of argument. This process can be used to “TEST” the quality of the original argument and identify weaknesses in its structure.

Sherri A I have already shared a story with my olldest sister she seemed genuinely surprized But seeing her and talking to her face to face.I know that they have lied. How much And how far are they willing to go to protect themselveles is another thing. Thanks what you said it is just what I needed to hear.

I am excited to see my nephew

I approach this conversation with my oldest sister with an open heart.Maybe she can explain why they all just kinda of forgot about me?

Breathe! And feel empowerd by the fact that you are taking control of this area of your life, standing up for yourself, and refusing to be victimized!

You are not alone. You are surrounded with supportive friends and family who will help you through this.

Be proactive. You have the power to stop toxic family members from hurting you by controlling your own actions and reactions. You’re well on your way!

If family members try to engage you in fights/arguments, remind yourself that you are there to gather facts, not to fight about what happened. You want to gather as much information as possible, take it home, mull over it, then decide a plan of action later. Try to diffuse their defensiveness. Once you start asking questions, they are naturally going to be defensive — especially if they know they wronged you. The more defensive they feel, the less information you’re going to get. What you want right now is information…not excuses, not apologies (yet!) If they start getting defensive and making excuses, you may want to say something like, “Look, I’m not here to judge you for what happened. I just don’t have a full understanding of what happened b/c I was ___ yrs. old when it happened. I just want to understand what happened and why it happened the way it did at the time.”

The fact is, this is just as much about grieving your mother’s death and the loss in your life of her partner as it is about righting wrongs. It may have happened many years ago, but you still need to process all your feeling and emotions with the factual info that you haven’t had until now, and they need to honor your feelings and emotions and your need for info.

Your family members may have done the best they could at the time, and let them know you realize that. But that doesn’t change the fact that it may be time to right some wrongs. Now that they know btter, it’s time to do better.

Whew! Take good care of yourself during this time, because it is emotionally draining…sleep, eat well, exercise, be gentle on yourself! And revel in your daughter’s happiness!

I read an article this week in USA Today stating that smaller cars are responsible for thousands of deaths each year. The debate is the environment vs. safety.

For about three days now, I’ve been considering traiding in my compact for something a bit more substantial…..then I read your reference to the fact that we could feed one person for an entire year on the amount of grain it takes to fill a 25-gallon tank in an SUV.

# of SUVs on the road x # of times drivers fill the tank in one year = MANY people fed

I’ll have to keep rsearching, but now I’m thinking my compact car, which gets 40 miles to the gallon, isn’t such a bad idea afterall.

Of course, if the majority of drivers downsized their cars, and if ALL drivers refused to use their electronic toys while driving, I’m thinking the result would be far fewer deaths on the road.

Jean in re to your post regarding aquifers – the aquifer in FL is barely above sea level. Before the mass development of the state, there was enough open acreage to allow for the replenishment of the aquifer. . .not so much these days. As development expands unchecked (I believe the developers’ motto is IF we build it, they will come), that acreage has been paved over (and in some areas, over and over)thereby diminishing the natural replenishment of the aquifer. Politicians in FL are all for drilling off our coastline, but nary a one has advanced the idea of desalinization plants to turn sea water into potable water. As my dad just to say Water Water all around and not a drop to drink.

Raji, you don’t know me well enough to make the conclusions you did. I don’t play devil’s advocate. I tell the truth as I see it. If I find credible information which I think disproves my theories, I re- think them. I have an inquiring mind. You need one too.

Your supercilious implication that I asked you questions about Buddhism because I wanted a research assistant was rude and untrue.

If I were to make similar conclusions about you, I would say you are miffed because your brother is right and he has facts to back it up. You on the other hand are afraid to admit you are wrong, so you keep quiet with a slow burn. I don’t know you, so I would never write that. Kindly give me the same consideration.

Yesterday, on Good Morning America, Liz Cheney and Lawrence O’Donald debated Cheney’s speech. She wiped the floor with him because facts supported her arguments, and O’Donald had few. He resorted to bluster and interruptions to try to shut her up, but Liz kept talking. O’Donald became so panicky he implied Bush-Cheney’s CIA and Army should have water boarded even more prisoners. He was trying to use her conclusions against her, but he was so inept, it was painful to watch.

If I were to generalize, I would say that is typical behavior of an out- foxed liberal, but I won’t because it isn’t true.

I apologized after I accidently misspelled your handle. I deserve an apology too, but I won’t be around for several days after this to read it–if it ever happens.

Let’s get serious folks. I just got around to reading an article in the May 2009 Scientific American Magazine. I think it is most sobering and thought provoking.

HELP! HELP! Whirled Peas. I found it on Google but I still can’t figure out how to squeeze it onto Margaret and Helen’s teensy-weensy little comment box. The title is:
“Could Food Shortages Bring Down Civilization?” by Lester R. Brown. He is a distinguished environmental thinker and has written or co-authored some 50 books.

I am going to quote snippets from it here, but I highly recommend reading it in its entirety.

“…….Typically we project the future by extrapolating from trends in the past. … Much of the time this approach works well. Bit sometimes it fails spectacularly, and people are simply blindsided by events.

[These factors are all interrelated. Only one of his fascinating statistics is that the grain required to fill a 25-gallon SUV tank with ethanol could feed one person for a year. That’s a rather astonishing Oops!]

“……….Many aquifers that supply irrigated crops are being drawn down faster than rain can recharge them. When farmers tap ‘fossil” aquifers, which store ancient water in rock impermeable to rain, they are mining a nonrenewable resource.” Also rising sea levels lead to the salting of coastal aquifers.

Some of the consequences of Food Shortages are:

“When a nation’s government can no longer provide security or basic services for its citizens, the resulting social chaos can have serious adverse effects beyond that nation’s own borders.

1. Spreading disease.
2. Offering sanctuary to terrorists and pirates.
3. Spreading the sale of drugs and weapons.
4. Fostering political extremism.
5. Generating violence and refugees, which can spill over into neighboring states.”

My thinking is we have to get beyond the Medieval mentality of ‘storming the castle’, victory and/or defeat. Then making off with the spoils of war.

The author cites from “The Failed States Index 2008”, by the fund for Peace and the Carnegie Endowment of International Peace, in July/August 2008. There is a list of 20 countries, from the worst to better in the world, that are closest to collapse.

When it comes to geo-politics, what benefits all societies as a whole will ultimately benefit each of us individually. What is detrimental to societies as a whole will undoubtedly come back and bite us in the ass individually.

Boy have I been away! Greytdog, did catch the nasty remarks that came your way. Wish I have your class. This is a place where I come when I want to de-stress, get a laugh, feed my hunger for common sense, and to be with like-minded people.

I usually enjoy what you write Greytdog, keep them coming. For those that do not like it when somebody posts a lot, just skip and move on to the next.

Nothing wrong with asking questions – as long as you really want to hear the answer. I try to take a few moments (days whatever time is needed) to reflect upon the answer before asking the followup question. . . sometimes we get so busy thinking about the next question, we don’t always hear the answer, or sometimes we ignore the answer because it wasn’t what we wanted to hear.

To one and all, a very safe memorial day weekend. And to those who served and died in whatever capacity to ensure and uphold the principles and values of this country, thank you. Nothing is forgotten. Nothing is ever forgotten.

Keith Obermann sure had fun at Dick Cheney’s expense but he never said why Obama left the option open for him to do the same thing?????
did you see the daily show (how much Obama’s and Bush’s have the same ideas)

Time to pull on those Wellies folks – flood-ravaged Eagle, AK needs some help. For list(s) of items needed, please go to themudflats.net or anonymousbloggers.wordpress.com
The Mudflats community is also planning to fundraise to get the Eagle folks a pressure washer. . .if anyone in the M&H community can contribute ideas or help with brainstorming, please do so.

CFL is flooding too, but we don’t have huge ice floes that knock our homes off foundations. . . It’s sort of funny (not in a ha-ha way) that just 7 days ago we were sweltering. . . now the lakes are overflowing, there is water standing in yards, streets flooding, sewer systems are going “yikes!”, and hurricane season doesn’t start for another week! Oh well. I see this as a drill for the big H season. . . and my yard is actually green again (altho it could just be mold or algae)

so,I am going to oklahoma city duh..duh …duh it will be interesting talking to my oldest sister.Now that I have made contact with Sue Thank you again Sherri A I have once again become a little more important than I was last week ?The plot thickens.Where do I begin my mothers name ?
I love you guys but this could be serious.I am like 48 years old and don’t know what to do?

‘Doesn’t anyone remember the video that bin Laden released shortly after 9/11? In the video he declared his goal was the economic destruction of the US – to see the wealth of america squandered and demolished. . . I remember that video because he stated that our power was not military or ideology, but our economic domination. . . and that was his target. The destruction of the towers was a “bonus”…’

Sorry for the delay GD and I couldn’t find the video but I do have the transcript:

So we are continuing this policy in bleeding America to the point of bankruptcy.

~snip~

Rather, the policy of the White House that demands the opening of war fronts to keep busy their various corporations – whether they be working in the field of arms or oil or reconstruction – has helped al-Qaida to achieve these enormous results.

~snip~

…al-Qaida spent $500,000 on the event, while America, in the incident and its aftermath, lost – according to the lowest estimate – more than 500 billion dollars.

Meaning that every dollar of al-Qaida defeated a million dollars by the permission of Allah, besides the loss of a huge number of jobs.

Jean and werner – couldn’t stop laughing about the noisy neighboros. Many years ago I had neighbors who kept pthe neighborhood awake.
I finally decided to fight fire with fire. They worked with their dog training at midnight among other choice noisy items. Anyway, my tactics worked and we managed to stay friends.

Did you hear Cheney’s speech from just the other day? It was bogus Neocon Theology to the core! Lies and strawmen aplenty! God help us if this bunch ever gets enough money etc. to win the White House ever again! And now he has one of his kids running point for him and taking some of the heat usually coming his way. (Hey, Father’s Day is coming up!) What a schlemiel!

Until Helen and Margaret get back, here are a few random thoughts about the topics of the last week or so. My husband is/was a life-long Republican. I was and am a life-long Democrat. Going all the way back to the beginning of the Eisenhower Administration we have had friends and acquaintances of every persuasion all up and down the political spectrum. (Yikes! Does that ever date me?) So over these many years, we have heard just about all of the opinions and ‘expert assessments’ floating around.

In the here and now, mostly we want someone representing us who is smarter, with more experience and better informed than we are! We look for PEOPLE with those qualification rather than party affiliation. Occasionally we have voted for the same people. More often than not, we have each nearly broken a leg to get to the polls to cancel out each other’s vote!

Except for a few hard-core die-hards, many of our Republican friends had a political epiphany during the Bush, Inc., years – including my husband.

I was born into a fairly strict Presbyterian family from a Western American culture. My husband; a fairly strict Catholic family from an Eastern American culture. We fell in love, which generally trumps most political and religious ideologies. Also, love rarely has a litmus test when it comes to race, sexual orientation, ethnicity or culture. Naturally, our exposure in this country has generally been that of the various Christian sects with quite a few Jewish.

Now, at this stage of our lives we go to our ‘church’; sit in our beach chairs, look at the sky with a few puffy white clouds, gentle trade winds blowing and the surf lapping on the sandy beach. We feel our ‘church’ is by far, more lovely than any man-made cathedral, synagogue, mosque or temple. Besides, the sermon is short! At our age, we figure we ought to hedge our bets. We are Equal Opportunity Supplicants.

In our extensive travels round the world it has not been such a different story. We have met people of many other faiths and cultural background, from Moslem to Buddhist to Hindu to some religions I had never even heard of. We are all just PEOPLE with the same hopes and drives everywhere. Because of this variety of people, we would not have missed the wonderful experiences and adventures we have had for anything.

Way back when on this blog, I said my piece about women’s reproductive health so I won’t repeat myself. But I do say this now. The next time a clergyman, elected official or ANY man finds himself pregnant, then he will be qualified to expound on the subject with his expertise.

I am always amused when someone without a shred of qualification or credential pontificates on physical or emotional health with diagnoses. A practicing doctor or clinician worth his/her salt would NEVER presume to make such sweeping generalizations without a thorough examination of the patient.

Evening, everyone! Quick peek in and a comment – I like going to other blogs – so when a name pops up indicating that the writer has a blog, I will usually pop over to see what’s what. . . may I suggest you all wander over and read one of our fellow poster’s, Heather’s, blog: http://ethan-charles.blogspot.com/
You will be truly truly thankful you did – a wonderful, loving, heartwrenching, can’t find enough words to describe the feelings – blog. And her little boy – amazing amazing amazing!

Sorry James, you can do your own homework on dial up Google just as I can. Inquiring minds need to do their own research not have it handed to them on a blog. You are beginning to remind me of my brother who plays the Devil’s Advocate and I have learned not to debate with him.

Honolulu Sally, I agree with the philosophy. My concept of Buddhism comes from the book. Siddhartha by Herman Hesse who stated ” The true profession of man is to find his way to himself”

Just a quick pop in before I have to head out. . . but please remember when discussing religion, much of what we consider to be “Christianity” has less to do with the teachings of Jesus and more to do with how the writings of Paul and the Apostles were interpreted through the centuries. Also, that many of the gnostic gospels were put aside because they did not “teach” the lessons the ancient Church felt were needed. If you are interested in just reading a Christian work (actually Deist), I suggest reading the Jeffersonian Bible.

My mother was Buddhist, my father Episcopalian. Growing up in Hawaii, religious beliefs didn’t matter much – to each their own – and we all got along. [Granted, we didn’t have any kook “Christian” parrot owners like the ones in Waialua.]

I believe in Christ, God, and the exceptional teachings of Buddha.

I am very disappointed in how some Christian religious leaders use whatever hate, fear and damnation they can to keep their flocks in confinement.

I do think we can all benefit from Buddhist beliefs of compassion and nirvana. I have not gone to any temple or sat with any priest or monk, and have only read a few words on Buddhism.

I do not think that violence and domination is a part of Buddhism. Rather it nurtures peace and living one’s life to its fullest without hurting others.

I have quoted the Dalai Lama (such a cute man) before, and it is worth quoting again:

“Be kind whenever possible…. It is always possible.”

If, and that is a BIG IF, the whole world embraced this philosophy, we would have world peace.

Thanks Raji. I mentioned Sri Lanka to illustrate my point about peoples’ behaving differently from their religious teachings. Their relative numbers in a society also influences how they behave, in my opinion.

I know Sri Lanka is not a pleasant place with the Liberation Tigers etc. You are right to say with 70% of the people of the Buddhist faith the odds favor their fighting on both sides.

I appreciate your taking the time to give another view. I was hoping you would.

Now, I have some questions. Is the Buddhist religion divided into sects as the Christian, Muslim and Jewish religions are?

If so, are they tolerant of each other?

Where on the economic scale do most Buddhists reside? I got the impression that in India many are relatively poor and subject to some discrimination, but their status is improving. Is that true?

Does the fact that Hindus refuse to recognize the conversion of some to Buddhism influence the converts’ lives? Do they have fewer rights than other Buddhists? Do they have reason to care what the Hindus think?

You probably think some of these are dumb questions, but I have an inquiring mind.

Sorry about the long economic rants. Our spending worries me more than anything we are doing.

James, in your original statement you were referring to India. Now you are referring to Sri Lanka. 70% of the population in Sri Lanka are Buddhist so the chances are that any mob attacking would be Buddhist. If 70% of America is Christian then the chances of a riot or mob attack could be called Christians rioting in America.

Buddhists attacking a Methodist church makes headlines. The assault of the Sri Lankan army’s against the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) having left thousands of ethnic Tamil civilians dead may make the news but not many people will take the time to read about it. There are no good guys in Sri Lanka. The LTTE is one of the cruelest terrorists groups and atrocities have been carried out by both sides. I would take a guess that both sides are comprised of Buddhists.

Just thought you might want another view regarding religion and politics.

Unintended consequences haunt us all. President Obama strong- armed Chrysler’s secured creditors into accepting less than the company’s total debt as payment so the government would save money on the reorganization.

Thus, Chrysler, with Treasury backing offered slightly less than $.30 on the dollar to settle claims totaling $6.9 billion. Four banks holding most of the debt accepted the terms after Obama threatened them with public relations ruination in the press.

Yesterday, the Indiana State Teachers’ Retirement Fund said they have a responsibility to their members to sue for all of the $4.6 million they will lose under the current settlement. The Indiana State Treasurer offered to help.

Another creditor who had abandoned the fight is reconsidering. They claim that our government effectively owns Chrysler and is violating the rights of first-tiered secured creditors who have absolute first priority. This unexpected development may force us to spend even more money on “our” car company.

Another results from Obama’s reducing the companies advertising budgets by half. A number of minority magazines and newspapers which rely heavily on auto ads are suffering. NASCAR is still accessing its lower advertising revenue will have.

Auto dealerships were cut adrift. Many will go out of business and put their employees onto the street. Others, like farm implement dealerships of the farm recession will become independents and deal with used cars or specialize on auto repair.

Maybe Obama’s advertising cuts made good sense. But they are creating unintended consequences the government planned for? Is this a surprise for our leaders? You have to anticipate blow back.

So, Honolulu Sally, these are a few issues which render me less sanguine about our immediate future than you. I have run our farm business and survived for 37 years.

During hard times, I was the first in the neighborhood to buy time by paying our $10,000 property taxes with a credit card rather than let creditors foreclose. Twenty years ago, we were $450,000 in debt, and I bought another $100,000 worth of machinery because as with the government, deficit spending is sometimes an investment which pays for itself.

We cut back in other ways, and even so, we barely survived when most of the neighbors failed. Now we are financially comfortable enough to help family members and some friends.

We did it because I had a plan, and always focused on inputs, cost, and per unit profit. We sacrificed our life style as we and our children worked long hours to keep our farm viable and to service the debt. I don’t think the government has a plan, and that is frightening.

Water is effective and inoffensice, so if a stupid bitch with a stupid bird walks on MY ground she’d get pretty wet, when a speaker in an open window annoys me, my garden hose might slip and it get all wet in the process (and short circuited too!)
The important part is: Don’t forget to appologize really nicly for those stupid “accidents”!

I mean I know much meaner stuff, much more nasty and nearly impossible to proof, so those assholse can be happy their not in MY neighbourhood, I am neither nice nore civil nore in anyway do I believe in holding back with an asshole that begs for a “beating”, my only concern is not to get caught……..

Nice things comming to mind include:

Consruction foam up the tail pipe (use aquarium tubing as extension to get it in far enough so it won’t be seen)

A liter of milk poured in the airintake slots of the car on a warm day (cheap, and when you wipe any spills, also clean and in warm weather milk can produce a real nice smell)

Or just some caustic household chemicals “accidentally” poured over the nice shiny colore of the car……. (do it ona dry night and let it sit for at least 4 hours, extremly psychedelic results…..)

Now, don’t get me started on the nasty stuff……

….but belive me, in just 3 months they’d be moving just cause they shit their pants when thinking on what might happen next, and remeber, with “terrorists” (and those people are terrorizing) there is only one rule: Don’t get caught!”

Honolulu Sally, I like Jessie Ventura, but not as a governor. I don’t know to what party he belonged, maybe Libertarian.

I don’t watch Fox News, and I know they are biased, but so is most of the mainstream media. Fox offers an alternative view to the other side. Fox’s ratings reflect viewers’ desire to watch the network’s alternative ideological slant.

Last weeks polls conducted by Opinion Dynamics for Fox News, Gallop, and Pew showed for the first time, more people declared themselves to be pro-lifers than pro-choice. The change came from independents and Republicans.

On the economic side, an increasing number of independents and Republicans are feeling “buyers’ remorse’ after voting for Obama. Majorities oppose the government’s spending and future plans as well as more intrusion into the lives of Americans and businesses, though they still like Obama.

I suspect the pro-life surge may be more a reaction to Democratic policies than a permanent change in philosophy. As people fear the corporatism and debt which lies ahead, they may be adopting more conservative convictions in the same manner that Bush drove some voters to become more liberal.

I am not angry because Obama is president. I think he has done some good things, but the big picture ahead looks pretty dangerous.

Most of our extra spending won’t take effect for a couple of years so most was not intended to revive the current economy. Democrats told us the spending bill was so important it must be passed with little debate or even time to read it.

Obama has been president for four months. Where are the new jobs? Its true the government is hiring, and most of the spending has been on government projects. Its still early, and asking for quick results is unfair, but four months will become ten and twelve. If nothing has changed for the better by then, Obama will have a problem.

ABC News reported that in 2007 about 51% of college graduates had jobs when they left school. This year, the number is about 14%. We had better be able to employ them soon, or they will vote Republican in the next election.

Our current and projected deficites are at historic highs and bound to go higher. Some economists believe the dollar risks losing its AAA status some time in the future. Inflation and higher taxes for us all are practically certain.

California is virtually bankrupt because it spent more money than it earned. I think about 13 states are on the same track. Will we bail them all out? Who will bail us out? Where do you think we will find the money to pay for everything?

Maybe you know better than I because I don’t see where besides printing presses we can find the resources. Warren Buffet, who supported Obama said we are headed over a cliff. Taxes only go so far as California’s tax payer revolt shows. How will we pay for it?

TEA Parties are still happening. My cousin attended one last weekend. There was one in Omaha yesterday after the city announced information the Democrats hid until after the election. Omaha must find revenue fast or face serious trouble, maybe even bankruptcy. The Nebraska legislature is not offering much more than sympathy. Given the right conditions, the TEA Parties will become a revolt.

Raji, I feel bad for spelling your name wrong. My only defense is my time is limited, and I hurry too often. I also can hardly see the screen on some summery days. I apologize.

I know a little about Kashmir and why India and Pakistan were split into different countries. I’d like to learn more when I have time, or if you care to tell me. Thanks for the information you have already provided. Be warned. I already have many questions to ask you.

Aside from the normal political and economic conflict, something new has developed–competition for converts. Christians are a small minority, but they are converting Hindus and Buddhists. Buddhists and other religions have also won converts. A large group of Hindu untouchables converted to Buddhism.

Nova Scotia Scott (Gilbreath) wrote on April 17, “Buddhist mobs attacked several churches in Sri Lanka last week, threatening to kill a pastor…and ransacking a 50-year old Methodist church building in the capital.

Another headline noted that Hindus are attacking Christians in India as Buddhists do in Sri Lanka. Other sites describe Hindu violence against Buddhists and Muslims.

Christiancouncil.in “Hope for India’s ‘broken’ Buddhists wrote “In contemporary India, while attacks by Hindu militant groups on the minority Muslim and Christian communities have drawn the attention of Indian and international media, atrocities on Buddhists go unreported, mostly because they fall into the lowest rungs of the caste ladder.”

At least some Hindus refuse to accept the conversion of many untouchables of their faith to Buddhism. Buddhists are gaining political power, and some predict a woman named Mayawati and her Bahujan Samaj Party which claims support for the poor of every caste and religious community may use a grass roots strategy similar to Obama’s to win the next election.

In my opinion all religions are separate from their people. Their lofty ideals are standards to achieve, but human motivation is base. Members of any religion will fight when its interests are threatened whether or not it preaches peace. Change has upset the peaceful balance.

sherri a I will have to look up land deeds. I am really hurt by all of these things.My brothers and sisters ares thinking it is all about money What it really all about what they did to me just because I was a kid and would not ask questions.

Well I am not a kid anymore.?

Just the truth???

If they know that they owe me money then they need to prepare fore that now

There is a hilarious article in today’s Honolulu Advertiser newspaper. Sally, have you seen or heard about it? It goes to show that there are fanatics in Paradise too.

It is rather lengthy and I would post a link to it if I knew how. Whirled Peas, it can be found at Honolulu Advertiser.com. May 20 issue. Then go to Local News, Top Stories, about the fifth one down entitled “For Waialua’s feuding families, peace and quiet proves elusive.” There is supposed to be a video there about it too, but I’m not computer-savvy enough to find it.

Briefly, a couple moved into a nice, peaceful “redeveloped plantation community” of about 15 homes. They began playing very loud Christian music and SERMONS that could be heard all over the neighborhood sometimes until 2:30AM. Of course, the neighbors complained. Ignored. Got a cease and desist order. Ignored. Restraining orders, etc., etc., etc. A pastor was brought into the act.

From there it escalated into a fullblown feud. But no violence. The police were called numerous times and of course it went to court. The upshot is that big attorneys fees were run up, the ‘Christians’ couldn’t pay, their house was foreclosed and sold at auction for $9.000. They have 30 days to get out. They won’t give up. They feel their ‘civil rights’ have been trampled because of their religious convictions.

I meant to tell you last night. You may be younger than I but you will catch up. Trust me.
In the meantime, never fear, you are holding your own with your comments, my dear. I’m proud to call you a fellow Hawaiian. (What’s the feminine equivalent word for ‘fellow”?

THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU for the Monty Python link!!!!!!!! I didn’t know they were still around. I have loved them FOREVER!
Anybody here remember “The Life of Brian”?
I almost broke my entire rib cage coubled over laughing the numerous times I saw it.

Seeing this “Bloody Peasants” was a great treat as well as a trip down memory lane.

Good link Elsie! Jesse Ventura was about to smack that host Brian upside and in soon. The panty waist just had to leave, and the two remaining hosts sat around to play polite patty cake with a fired up Jesse.

Was Jesse Ventura a Republican (before)? I don’t think he was on the Bush’s Christmas card list.

Notice how Rupert Murdoch’s Fox people all try to sell Obama down the tube no matter what the talking point is? I believe it was Whirled Peas that gave us a link to some Out-Foxed documentary about Fox News and how Murdoch just loved Reagan to the point of covering his nothing of a birthday celebration one year.

It has only been 4 months since Obama took office. Unreal. Already he has introduced and won key issues that will change the way America meets our future challenges. The discontented cannot see the big picture because they are still harping on their loss back in November. The Obama backers are still pretty elated about the change in regime, for we feel that hope and change won.

The ones in the middle were the swing voters, the ones with both feet on the ground, the ones without prejudice, stardust, or doom.

Throw out the far right, throw out the far left (oops! I’m out!), and what you have remaining are the more reasonable voices of America that have the best perspective of how Obama is doing. And so far, for them, he’s been doing pretty fine.

And, as Martha Stewart says on her show every day – That’s a good thing. (Is Martha a Republican?)

Here’s a new video today, again on Huffington Post, with Ventura going after yet another Fixed News ninny on “Fox and Friends”. It’s even more entertaining than the Hannity one and begins with an introduction that includes:

“…Jesse Ventura is basically straight up walking across America from one television news studio to the next, just plain wreckin’ whatever fools he finds hanging out there…”

As for the discussion regarding religion & global politics – I really can’t think of any conflict that didn’t have some religious justification involved. . . can you?

Nope!!!!

Greytdog, it was meant as a compliment. One of my daughters after she graduated from college went to bartender school so she could get a job and knew what to serve and was considered a “classy bar tender”.

Did you know in India everything is called a tender, bar tender, boat tender, etc.?

Greytdog, I’m not really sure what that clause is all about. I have talked to my “locals” who are all gun advocates (they hunt and will do anything to keep their guns) and they don’t know the purpose behind the amendment. I have no idea why the NRA is promoting that amendment except to prove another point that all guns should be allowed. I agree with you that I would be reluctant to enter a National Park knowing gun toters were roaming about. A good read is Bill Bryson’s book a Walk in the Woods. The locals say unless the National Park opened up for hunting season they couldn’t understand the amendment. So who pushed this through and WHY??

James, FYI, my online name is Raji, not ragi. It’s my female version of the male Raj taken from the word Maharaja. My friends of many years from India were once Maharaja (Raj) meaning an Indian prince who was a ruler of one of the former native states of India. In 1949 because they were Hindu they lost their lands and palace in Jammu and were forced to move to what is now India. Not only did they lose their land they lost their prestige and you wonder why Pakistan and India are still at war.

Dick Cheney is a hot mess. He’s always been so. My guess is anyone who thinks otherwise has a hard time understanding terrorism. It’s actually quite easy if you read a few “liberal papers” and did more than the bare minimum in grade school.

James wrote:”I don’t know much about Buddhists either, but Buddists and Hindus in India have rioted and battled each other as well as Muslims.”

I am not a history buff but James if you study the history of Kashmir, you will understand the wars between Pakistan and India and why the Muslins and Hindu’s battle not the Buddhist. Kashmir was once a Buddhist seat of learning.

In 1949, the Indian government obliged Hari Singh to leave Jammu and Kashmir, and yield the government to Sheikh Abdullah, the leader of a popular political party, the National Conference Party. Since then, a bitter enmity has been developed between India and Pakistan and three wars have taken place between them over Kashmir.

Prior to 1949 The Muslims and Hindus of Kashmir lived in relative harmony, since the Sufi-Islamic way of life that ordinary Muslims followed in Kashmir complemented the Rishi tradition of Kashmiri Pandits.

The wars between India and Pakistan have always been about Kashmir for political and economical reasons more than religious.

I wonder why you come over here with your pompous ass and insult people?

Do think it important to make sure everyone nows that there are complete jackasses on the left too?

And you and the left, you know, you remind me of the ex RAF (Rote Armee Fraktion) supporter and lefy-wing German attorney Hans Mahler who made a 180 degree turn in the 80s and became a strong Nazi supporter and Holocaust denier…… a completly lost soul, that would grasp at any political straw to get some exposure!

And if your life is SOOOO important, why waste your time here and belittle others?

At DonorsChoose.org, teachers submit project proposals for supplies their students need. You can browse the project proposals and choose projects to fund in whole or in part. Donors Choose purchases the materials & send them to the teacher, then you get a thank-you package from the teacher & the students!

Donations are tax-deductible. It’s a fantastic and simple way to help school children!

“One hundred senators, 435 congressmen, one president and nine Supreme Court justices – 545 human beings out of the 300 million – are directly, legally, morally and individually responsible for the domestic problems that plague this country.”

“At the end of each calendar year, Reese wrote his annual ‘conflict of interest’ column, in which he disclosed his sources of income, his political affiliation and the organizations of which he was a dues paying member. He would also state his basic political philosophy and other core beliefs in addition to purpose of his columns.[12][13] He stated that readers should have an idea where a columnist is coming from and where any potential conflicts of interest could arise, but to his knowledge he was the only columnist that carried out this practice.”

UAW, hang in there. We’re all sending good thoughts to you and your wife.

Mr. Weak – James may have many opinions that I don’t agree with, but he is definitely not dumber than dirt. What a spectacularly flaming poo bag way to herald your debut here on M & H’s front porch. Then you went after Greytdog. You simply have terrible manners.

Gretchen, if I read you right you don’t seem to even know how to read.

Margaret (Yoda – yes!), Helen, Greytdog, Whirled, Jean, James, Werner, Sally, Raji and all the rest of you that I’m forgetting right now – thank you! I learn so much by hanging out here with y’all.

Elsie, thank you for alerting us about the Ventura-meets-Hannity video. That was priceless!

I will admit that I didn’t vote for Ventura, and don’t like him much in general (he’s too self-absorbed), but I *loved* that smackdown. Not that Hannity needed any help looking like a shrill, brainless airhorn — but Jesse did a good job of exposing him.

WeakInReview,
You are obviously having issues with some other postes here. I think it was pretty clear from my post that I was not tearing down Helen or Margaret. Or their opinions. I asked a question period.

As for citing an argument that was never made, Helen clearly tied America’s presence in the Middle East to that of the illegal immigrants coming into the US and how we do not appreciate or like that. She clearly indicated that it was one of the reasons they hate us so much. Frankly I did not disagree, I simply asked if she thought our leaving would make them hate us less.

I would appreciate it if you would leave me out of your disagreements with others and stop taking/making things so personal

Ragi, both parties have been inserting those little amendments for years. It has worked because the bills are so big, few people actually read them and because the president decides the whole bill deserves passage in spite of objectionable amendments.

Clinton, and some Republicans attempted to fix the problem with the line item veto. My memory has gone hazy about why we don’t have it. Maybe it is unconstitutional.

I don’t like the gun amendment either, but it won’t stop me from visiting a national park.

GreytdogA, unlike WeakinReview, I look forward to all of your posts. You are smart and have a sense of humor.

I don’t know much about Buddhists either, but Buddists and Hindus in India have rioted and battled each other as well as Muslims. The groups have also attacked minority Christians. I don’t know if it is political and economic tribalism hiding behind religion or not, but it happens even in India.

Honolulu Sally, your comments about Obama’s speech made me think the country and this message board would be better if we discussed our differences as the president does.

I have had to extrapolate from incomplete information to stay in farming. Sometimes, I really blew it, but I stayed in business because I was right more often than not. Thus, I am not bragging.

Early on, I wrote the next few years will be interesting. You asked how. I predicted we would either own the auto companies or they would go bankrupt. I also believed something similar would happen to some of our banks, and it has.

I also wrote that Obama’s inexperience would create problems for him, and it has. The Europeans rolled him at the recent conference, and a British newspaper called him a panty- waist.

He has had to back track on Guantanamo and releasing the prisoners because foreign countries don’t want them. Harry Reid said the Senate will not fund a shut down of Gitmo until the government decides what to do with the prisoners. A more experienced politician would have worked out the details before making public policy.

After refusing to, Obama has continued many of Bush’s policies. That was no surprise. He hinted as much in some of his campaign statements. That was a good thing.

Polls show Obama to be more popular than many of his policies. I hope I am wrong, but the worst is coming.

The tax payers revolt in California will spread to the rest of the country in a few years.

Surveys show our part of the country is doing relatively well. Government planners ought to study our region and compare it to sinking regions and learn.

Raji, I just wonder how this “little clause” will affect attendance at the national parks during the vacation months. A close friend has worked at the Great Smokey Mountains National Park for the last 20 years. They are always understaffed and overworked. Besides their regular duties, they are often called in to work with the DEA (high drug trafficking goes through the Smokies, similar to the moonshine runners generations ago). The drug runners are armed, the rangers are armed (but not as well), and now the general public? I don’t think we need to be a’feared of the wildlife – I think we need to be a’feared of the idiots in the next tent or RV having a few too many then popping off their guns to prove their shootin’ skills. . . don’t know about anyone else, but this will definitely make me think twice before heading out to a national park. It’s one thing to rig your campsite to be relatively bear proof, but there’s no rigging against stupid with guns. To Congress, here’s your sign!

WeakInReview, you seem to have an emotional problem when people disagree with you. To be fair, you are not the only one. Consider Honolulu Sally. She thinks some of my beliefs are crazy, as I do hers, but we treat each other with respect. I like her.

Name calling and using labels like “Fox News bloggers” are symptomatic of what we previously discussed–tribalism. GreytdogA’s posting frequency is none of your business. You apparently had no way to refute her so you resorted to adhominan attacks. We dehumanize and attempt to destroy in one way or another those who don’t belong to our tribe.

Read “Civility:Manners, Morals, and the Etiquette of Democracy by Stephen L. Carter.

I’m finally beginning to catch on to what it takes to be a politician. Even an idiot has to wonder what the “credit card overhaul bill” has to do with loaded guns in our national parks. It really takes a devious mind like Oklahoma Sen. Tom Cobum to insert an amendment to the credit card bill that would allow concealed, loaded guns in parks and refuges. So this is how our wile foxes work? No wonder we need watchdogs.

WeakInReview – Thanks for inquiring my life. my typical week would turn most people I know weak. . .in fact I have been told to slow down, but you know something, when you look around there’s still a lot to do and I do it – so “my” time is extremely limited and how I choose to use it is my business. Posting on M&H is my choice, not yours. If that bothers you, deal with it.

MindDroppings, I always get very wary (and some say, contrary) whenever anyone of any stripe views the world and world events through a black and white matrix that allows for no shades of gray. I’m chewing over your post and will get back at ya 😉 In the meantime, your blog is very interesting.

I think that most of us here have lives, family and other interests. Politics is an AVOCATION in which we participate because it affects other aspect of our lives. Certainly, none of us on this blog are professional in the field of politics! We have come here to share information and ideas. Over the theses past months many of us have become dear friends.

A little background. It was never MY idea to become a concert pianist but that of my parents and music teachers. I was shoved onto a stage at age 7. I did and do love music, but from a very early age I DESPISED performing. The audiences were generally appreciative, but there were always a few ‘fans’, who insisted on attaching themselves. I think they are now called ‘groupies’. They wouldn’t have known an Eflatmaj9 chord from Middle C but that didn’t stop them from critiquing the tempo and expounding on the interpretation.

Some years later after a performance of Grieg’s Piano Concerto, one of them bent my ear with nasty little pieces of gossip about Grieg’s personal life, (which I had never heard of or even would have cared about if I had.) It was about as exciting as listening to him read his hometown phone book – with choice commentaries on each listing. So it didn’t take me long to spot a ‘fan’ and know that even the slightest encouragement would result in him/her camping on my doorstep, so to speak. It was almost impossible to get rid of him/her since it was the ATTENTION the ‘fans’ were after, not an abiding interest in music.

Also a performer finds out that you have to have an agent, a publicist, hair, make up and wardrobe specialists – all with their hands out. And oh, yes, they all want contracts, so in march the legions of lawyers. These people are collectively known as ‘handlers’. It is enough to exhaust you before you ever step onto the stage!

At age 21 I declared my independence! No more performances!!!!! Over the years, I have always maintained my love of music and have taught a handful of promising private students. I didn’t charge some of them anything because I knew they couldn’t afford it.

In time I meandered back into the world of academe as a result of an acquired interest in a very narrow field of the science of research in Physiological Psychology. I loved doing it!!! It was a hell of a lot easier to work with and perform brain surgery on laboratory rats to implant electrodes than to spend 6-8 hours a day at the piano for YEARS to build up a repertoire!

Am I a concert pianist now at the age of 79? Certainly not. But I still play and occasionally teach. Am I a scientist now? No to that one either. Considering the astonishing advances being made in science on a daily basis, I have not kept up to date. The interest is still there though.

Finally, a word about Susan Boyle. I sincerely hope the ‘handlers’ don’t get their hands on her. All she wants to do is sing. She is a sweet lady with the voice of an angel! I think she is beautiful.

Welcome back! Safe and sound. If you have to be in the vicinity of an earthquake, the best place would be up in the sky in an airplane.

Thank you for your diplomatic tack in saying I am more “mature and wiser”. That sounds so much nicer than “fiesty old broad”.

From what I know of Buddhism, which admittedly is not very much, it seems to me it has always been a non-aggressive faith. And the people I have known on the mainland and here are uniformally kind and gentle. Not like some I could name that historically proselyted, “Convert -or else!”

WeakInReview: Calm down darlin’, we’re just having a civil discourse here. . . now then. Let me see if I can clarify this a wee bit

okay. 2nd paragraph of the post dated may 14/2009 states:
“As Americans, many of us just can’t understand why terrorists from the Middle East would want to destroy us. The very idea of their hating us so much is almost unfathomable. Never mind that we have been occupying their homelands for more than 60 years. Never mind that today we have dozens of “enduring” military bases just in Iraq and dozens more in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Oman, Qatar… Is that really so terrible? We’re just there looking to send back a little oil to help run our cars and our factories back home. Why do they hate us so much? I don’t know, but I wish it was a problem we could finally solve.”
So let’s parse this out a bit:
1st sentence: the writer clearly includes herself in the inclusive “As Americans, many of us just can’t understand. . . ” Now, unless the English language has morphed into some Star Trekkie alternate universe, I believe that “as Americans. . .’us'” is an inclusive statement. Clearly, the writer sees herself as an American and notes that many americans – like herself – are unable to fathom that others may dislike Americans.
The writer then moves this thought forward with her supposition that perhaps this perceived hatred may stem from historical fact that the US has been “occupying” foreign lands for several decades. She further offers that the military bases in the Mid-East may be a source (please note A vs The – there is a difference) for some (please note “some” vs “all”) folks in that region to harbor hatred. The writer then opines (note, opines as in states an opinion) that the bases are there in exchange for protection of an economic source – in plain English, tit for tat. Now then, some folks immediately assume that if anyone should agree with the aforementioned premises as set forth in one paragraph, that agreement signals an unwillingness or perhaps even an inability to acknowledge the religious influence on world events. The argument is then set forth that to deny the impact of theocracy on current terrorists movements is either naive at best and ignorant at worst. However, the writers do command notice because instead of using bombastic language, they couch their arguments in syllogism and pedantic voice, thus giving credence to their words without having to offer citation or foundational thought. For instance, MindDroppings writes in reaction to the Mumbai carnage – from the viewpoint of a former Mumbai citizen who was most likely more affected by the attacks than someone who just watched the news of the attack. But this does not mean that we, as readers, cannot question his ultimate premise – that Islam as a religion is the sole basis for political radicalism and hatred against the West. But as our monitor, Sarah, reminds us, we must at all times remain emotionally controlled, intellectually rigorous, and fence with great dexterity. 🙂

PS to Jean – sorry, I’m not rethinking the cat box idea – nope. It’s enough that I consciously inspect their “offerings” for parasites, but I am not gonna do it with religious relic hunting in mind. When they start decorating the walls of their covered box to resemble Cappadocian iconography, I might reconsider.

It’s now almost 840P here and the rain hasn’t stopped – but I’m happy happy happy cuz the garden is happy, the dogs are happier than pigs in mud (they look like pigs in mud); my only regret is that I actually have to drive in this weather. . . I mean really! Why can’t work give us weather days like the schools do??? Seems all the ding-dong drivers come out to play whenever the weather turns bad – wonder why that is? Are they trying to slalom through the raindrops faster than Bode Miller falling down the slope? Do they really think doing a 360 in the middle of the roadway makes them more like Bourne than Bozo? And why is it that almost 50% of the drivers ride around in downpour with their wipers going a zillion flicks a second. . .and no headlights on? Of course my favorites are the big old SUVs who plow through the puddles creating tsunamis and then . . . die in the middle of the puddle which turns out to be a mini-lake because of the pothole that’s becoming a sinkhole. . . just another buoy bobbing along.

Boy! I missed a LOT on this site in the 4 days I was away! Snarky Friday was right! and it was a good thing that I spent all of its daylight hours on a plane ride to Los Angeles. Glad to miss it.

I think we all needed Obama’s speech to Notre Dame graduates (Sunday May 17). He took head-on the boycott protesting of his stance on abortion (pro-choice, pro-no choice) with grace, compassion, and understanding. In a nutshell, there are some issues that we will NEVER agree on, but we can still respect each other and have open hearts, open minds, and fair-minded words.

James, I gotta admit I do roll my eyes when I read your beliefs, but it is the same with my Jehovah’s Witness husband at some of their policies – I just roll my eyes and smile. He will probably never see me converted and I will probably never see him admit that the teachings of Buddha are pretty much the way to live.

Jean, you crack me up. Being more mature and wiser than me gives you license to “voice” the eye rolling, and that does make me LOL.

I was in So-Cal during the earthquake (that I did not feel) too! Raji and Grandma Katie! I saw it on the tv news in the hotel room, and couldn’t figure out where Inglewood was – my Hawaiian sense of geography made the districts look like Greek to me.

UAW, prayers and good thoughts for your wife. Thoughts become reality.

Jesse Ventura on the Larry King Show was SO politically incorrect I stood up and high five-d him on the electronic screen! I do believe Helen coached him…

For my kids’ sake, now that they are almost all out of the nest:

May the thought of having a respected, compassionate, strong, united America be in everyone’s heart so that our current President can do what needs to be done without the hate-mongering and divisive lies and fears of the very disappointed losers of Palin supporters. (James, you may roll your eyes.)

Donna, you and I broke even didn’t we? I agree partial birth abortions are rare, about 1%. Dr. Martin Haskil in 1992 said he had done 700 over the years which isn’t many compared the number of conventional abortions.

SherryA,

I did brief research, and here is what I found:

On March 13, 2001, Obama was the only Illinois senator who spoke against a bill that would have protected babies who survived partial birth abortions.

He reasoned that if a baby survived, and the baby was declared a person, the law would “forbid abortions to take place.” “Obama further explained the equal protection clause of the fourteenth amendment does not allow somebody to kill a child, so if the law deemed a child who survived a late-term labor induced abortion had a right to life ‘then this would be an anti -abortion statute.”

The site didn’t mention what I wrote before, but I am pretty sure Obama was worried about lawsuits against abortion doctors who’s mistakes led to live births.

According to factcheck.org and CNW, “the law on the books,” 720 ILCS 510.6 applies only where an abortionist declares before the abortion that there was a reasonable likelihood of sustained survival of the fetus outside the womb.

“When Obama spoke against the BAIPA on the Illinois Senate floor in 2001, he didn’t even claim that the BAIPA was duplicative of existing law. Rather he objected to defining what he called a ‘previable fetus’ as a legal ‘person–even though the bill clearly applied only to fully born infants.

I agree about Rush Limbaugh and other talk show entertainers. My information doesn’t come from them. If I use anything from there shows, I double check. We don’t have cable so we don’t watch Fox News.

Myminddroppings, I applaud you.
Now THAT, Ladies and Gentlemen, is a comment.
There are MANY on this site who could learn a thing or two from you. No matter what the opinion is…THAT is how we can discuss our differences.

Thank you for your respectful responses – even if they happen to be contrary to my views. Its a relative rarity on online fora and I commend you for it.

I am not asserting that Helen or Margaret were drawing some sinister conclusions. While it is true that Helen may be offering some perspective as “food for thought”, her post does imply a causality between American military presence and terrorist action. In fact you folks have asserted that yourselves. In the spirit of “food for thought” and “understanding problems” I submit to you that Islamic terrorism is a political agenda fueled by a religious doctrine.

In other words, if it was not reason A it will be reason B for directing hatred at the west in general and the US in particular.

Yes its true that US forces are (were) based in Saudi Arabia. But those forces did not arrive in a vacuum. They were expressly invited by the Saudi rulers in response to Saddam’s annexation of Kuwait.

Yes it is possible that some/many/most Saudis resent such a presence. They should rightfully take it up with their government. But instead, they choose to conduct their own “foreign policy” and ask the US to redress their grievances as though they were a legitimate entity to begin with.

While it is always good to be “understanding of our situation” it is also wise to realize that our adversary is driven by different motivations than what we think. We ‘ascribe’ reasons like “resistance to imperialism” to their actions because that’s the only way we can make sense of their actions.

But one has to only listen to them and their pronouncements about Global Jihad to know what their goal is. Of course, we dismiss this as “bluster” and gravitate to the constructs that are more “understandable” by us (such as political grievance). In other words our tendency to see the issue of Islamic terrorism in secular or non-religious terms is a failure of our *understanding of the situation* .

My point is: If you are serious about “understanding the problem” then let us open this debate and let us be willing to challenge even our own cherished positions.

In conclusion, it is tempting to think that all people are simply content to live peacefully if only we allow them to. Unfortunately the track record of Islamic terrorism does not bear witness to such kind sensibilities.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
And, UAW, keep on keepin’ on. You are a good man and a loving husband to stay close and keep trying to help your wife. I hope you also receive some loving support from those closest and dearest to you.

Sometimes when I need to vent to people in order to work through my crises and get through one more day, all I hear is how I should do such-and-such, or feel differently, or count my blessings, blah-blah-blah. At those times, I tell the person I’m speaking to that I need them to CARE, not CURE.

I don’t want them to resolve my issues or to give me advice on how to resolve or dealwith my issues. I just want them to listen and to care.

I hope you have a support system of friends and family you can turn to for caring, not curing.

You said, “Obama is pro- abortion if he is pro- choice. Obama tried to pass a law supporting partial birth abortion when he served in the Illinois State legislature. ”

I just have to correct you on that because you are totally wrong about it. He did NOT try to pass any such law. In fact, there was a bill up for vote in IL that outlawed partial birth abortion. Obama voted against it. He voted against it b/c there was ALREADY a law on the books banning partial birth abortions and he saw no reason for the same law to be passed twice.

I’ll give you that he’s pro-choice, but he did not try to legalize partial birth abortions. For god’s sake, you sound like my mother. I tell you the same thing I tell her…pull your head out of the Fox news sand and research the facts b/f you go repeating what you hear Limbaugh say.

Limbaugh himself will be the first person to tell you he is in the ENTERTAINMENT business, so his facts don’t have to be correct. He’s not a news reporter, he’s an entertainer. You take everything he says as the gospel truth, when in fact he’s skewing every news story out there to make himself look like a god and everyone else look like fools. He’s sure made a fool out of you at times!

ha! Just checked–you are correct. He said he absolutely would have supported the federal statute on the “born alive” issue. And I am correct re the “life of the mother” issue on late term abortions.

The one thing that I do know is that what are referred to as “partial birth” abortions are extremely rare and only performed in the most serious situations. Unfortunately, those who would substitute rhetoric for facts make it sound like those who don’t agree with them would use the procedure lightly.

Actually, James–I am pretty sure that the reason Obama would not support the bill was that there was already that protection on the books in Illinois. His concern was that this was an attempt to pass an unncessary statute. I could be wrong–but we both should check.

There are people who actively distort the President’s views and voting record on abortion-related issues. While he is definitely pro-choice, I don’t believe the track record is remotely what it’s been portrayed as.

Just some general information, Norma McCorvey, the “Roe” of Roe v Wade, gave birth and placed her child up for adoption before the Supreme Court decision. Pro-choice is not the same as pro-abortion, speaking for myself, I am anti-abortion, but pro-choice.

Thank you for the torture link. Very well done! One step forward in history, two steps back with Bush, Inc.

Maybe you ought to rethink the ‘cat box’ suggestion. Cats are ingenious at hiding their little tid-bits of wisdon. I have a mental picture of you sifting through the litter and finding any number of ‘nuggets’ of spiritual inspiration.

You are going through a really, really tough time. As I have often said, whenever a loved one is hurting, the other bleeds. I am so sorry for your wife. How many more courses of chemo treatments does she have endure in this go-around?

Having been through more such times than I care to recall, I can only say, “muddle on through the best you can”, which is small consolation.

I am speaking only for myself. I am ‘Pro- Abortion” in the sense that sometimes, one life must end to protect the other. Few people likely support wholesale killing of babies. They support the right to do it when necessary. I place it on the same moral ground as someone’s shooting another in self defense. Every living thing has an instinct to defend itself.

“Pro- choice” is a euphemism to cover the harsh reality. The Supreme Court rightly gives mothers a choice when there is no other way.

Donna, you might be right about that. Maybe I was wrong. Leroy Carhart, a man I served with in the Air Force sued Nebraska over a law banning abortions which had such a louphole. He won his case in the United States Supreme Court. Other states had similar bills which failed for lack or protection of a mother’s life.

The bill I remember concerned legislation written to protect infants who survived botched abortions. The state attorney general said there was no legislation he could use to protect surviving infants. I don’t know if this triggered the bill. A nurse told of how she was forced to put a surviving baby in a closet until it died.

Obama worried that it would expose abortionists to legal liability. He said he would have not voted as he did if the bill had the same abortion rights protection as federal legislation on the subject. I read that wasn’t true, but I haven’t read the bill, so I don’t know.

I would have voted to protect the lives of the surviving babies after amending the bill to save abortionists from unreasonable lawsuits.

What I find reprehensible is that the woman aka “Roe” in Roe v Wade now actively seeks to deny the right of choice to other women. WTF? So she had problems dealing with the emotional/spiritual aftermath of her decision – any thoughtful woman placed in that position will have “Issues” to work through before, during, and after. . .that’s why there are counseling centers set up in the clinics – to make sure that the woman fully understands the emotional price to be paid – and good clinics provide follow up and after-care counseling – they treat the person, not just perform a procedure . . .to seek to deny others what you yourself gained is simply. . . reprehensible.

Funny, but I’ve personally never equated Pro Choice with pro-Abortion. To me, pro-choice means just that – that the woman has the right to choose – abortion or no abortion. If the woman so chooses to not carry a fetus to full term, then that is her choice and the access to a medical procedure, performed by fully trained medical staff, in a sanitary safe environment is essential. Just as a woman who chooses to carry to full term should have access to a medical procedure performed by a fully trained medical (or nurse/midwife) personnel in a sanitary safe environment. Additionally, a woman who chooses to carry to full term and then place the baby for adoption should have access to ethical adoption agencies. Choice is the operative word for me. The choice the woman makes is not my business – that she has the right to choose is.

GreytdogA, I mentioned that in my response to Weak in Review.You have a good memory. Al Quiada knew we were already in a recession, and they thought the attacks would send us into a depression.

I remember reading about strange actions on the stock market before the attacks. A conspiracy theory enthusiast could say the terrorists were trying to manipulate the stock market for profit before the attacks.

They also expected a domestic xenophobic attack on American Muslims and our staging multiple missile attacks on the Middle East. He believed this would have inflamed the Muslim world and driven us out of the Middle East.

bin Ladin said if given a choice people choose a strong horse over a weak one. He assumed we were the weak horse.

As you wrote, bin Ladin donned the cloak of religiosity to achieve his goals.

I’m not arguing with you. I just don’t understand what Fox was doing. Were they using “Pro- Abortion” instead of “pro- choice” to put it in a bad light? Was this done in reference to a Gallop poll that shows more Americans oppose abortion than did?

Doesn’t anyone remember the video that bin Laden released shortly after 9/11? (Whirled Peas and Werner, calling on your expertise here cuz I can’t find the link anymore)
Anyway, in the video he declared his goal was the economic destruction of the US – to see the wealth of america squandered and demolished. . . I remember that video because he stated that our power was not military or ideology, but our economic domination. . . and that was his target. The destruction of the towers was a “bonus” for Al Quaeda, but it still seems they’ve hit the target. Religion is often the cloak worn to hide other motives – we shouldn’t forget that, ever.

Good Morning Helen – once again an interesting post. There are days when I am all for closing every one of our overseas military bases and bringing the military home to guard our borders to stop all the illegal immigrants from crossing into this country but do you seriously think that in doing so the extremist muslem groups are going to stop wanting us dead? Wouldn’t that sort of be like Dick Cheney suddenly not being.. well a Dick?

UAW, I wish we could help. For what its worth, you are a heroic man to do what you are doing. I know how it is. The weight grows heavier until you don’t know how you will stand it for one more day. But you will because you are strong, and you love your wife.

I don’t know how you met, but your wife is a lucky woman to have you on her side.

GreytdogA gives good advice. I know from personal experience how much it helps to take a break, even if it is a couple of hours at a movie theater. And as she writes God’s not giving you more than you can’t handle is a pile of something.

….Well, sorry to disappoint the Entrepreneurs in this crowd, but I swept away the Daniel in the Lion’s Den image. With this wet weather, however, I’m sure the dogs will provide more iconography for my perusal. The cats suggested that I might wish to inspect their Reliquary (cat box) for objects of theological interest, but I declined…..

Well, a german is not so easily discouraged! And your cat’s might be on to something, just read in a 17th Century biography (William Dampier, A Pirate with an exquisite mind, ISBN 0-670-04443-1) that in soem south east asian island they had a good trade iwith faux (fox?) ambergirs running they sold dried goat turds to the than rather scares tourists, maybe dried cat turds can be sold to nowadays tourist (Out of my experiencem they buy any shit if you present it nice enough….;-) )

No offense taken about my presence here, Weak in Review. Holy Dude is right and you are wrong. Your conclusions are faulty to say the least. You may not be “dumb as dirt” but you aren’t much of a thinker.

Our military presence in the Middle East is to protect our interests, and that includes a reliable oil supply. During the Cold War, we built bases and client states to counteract the Soviets who attempted to take control of the Middle East and its oil. With the exception of Iraq, we did not take land for bases via conquest. We bought and bribed our way in, often because friendly governments wanted us there to protect them.

bin Ladin represented a small revolutionary faction of Muslimism. In 1996, Ossama bin Laden declared war on the United States because of our anti-Muslim actions( some of those Muslims were hijacking our planes and murdering Jews and others.) across the world and particularly the Persian Gulf where American troops were stationed close to the Holy Cities of Medina and Mecca. Our support for Israel was also a factor.

bin Ladens’ reasons were more political and economic than cultural. Religion was a useful tool to inflame the masses.

So, you are saying because violent people don’t want us somewhere, we must pull back inside our borders and ignore the rest of the world. China did that around 1450, and it didn’t work out too well for them for several centuries did it? By your logic, we would have done nothing to stop the Nazis or the Soviets, because our resistance made them angry.

Oh and UAW if someone gives you that platitude of God not giving you more than you can handle, please bitch slap them upside the head for me – cuz those are usually the people who’ve never been there and don’t really know what the hell you’re going through.

UAW Damn that’s hard news. Isn’t there something for the nausea – altho I guess sometimes the more things you add into the mix the nastier the mix gets. . . what about ginger? A friend of mine went through tons of ginger candy while going through chemo – I don’t think I ever saw her without a ginger lozenge in her mouth the whole time. She bought them at Whole Foods. I’ll ask her to make sure and find out which one worked the best on her nausea.
As for you, my friend, being a caregiver to anyone is tough – add in the love of your life, so it’s tougher. Do you have a minister, or someone who you trust 100% to where you can express all those feelings? Oh I know feelings blah blah. But they do build up – the anger, the helplessness, the fear, etc. Been there done that. For me the trick was actually figuring out who I could vent to and talk with without the person saying, “You should” or “you shouldn’t”. AArrrggggh. And it really helped me a lot to always have a “happy” plan in mind for when my SO was feeling good. . . sometimes that meant a half hour in the park, sometimes it meant just watching a comedy, sometimes it was pleasant dinner out. . . and then my other “take care of the caregiver” was to find something to do that was simply “me breathing” time. . . it could be a hobby or something, but for me it actually was two things – painting and then gardening. . . and now SO helps with gardening so it’s become a “We breathing” time – would something like that work for you? It’s a tough worrisome and emotionally wrenching place where you’re at now, and if there is anything we here at M&H can do from afar, please please let us know. Okay?

Hey gang,
The title of my post on May 18th at 5:25 AM was
“Angel, Demons, and Tremors-Los Angeles is Quaking by Derek Flood”

Much as I would like to take credit for the eloquent and well written review of the movie “Angels and Devils”, the article was written by Derek Flood. What struck me about his article was his statement:

“in the middle of this quintessentially Hollywood carnival ride where rote religion is in a memetic competition with the reasoning of Galileo, pesky science struck us where we sat with a tectonic reminder of the evolution, age and fragility of the earth on which we reside”

I wish I could write as well as he but alas that was not my fortitude. I thought it was ironic that an earthquake should hit just when religion and science were battling it out on the screen just like politicians battle the subject in congress.

Fox news said Obama was Pro-Abortion.That is the stupidest thing I have ever heard in my life!
Do those people listen to themselves?I watched it on the Daily show last night.He was talking about Dick, and his need for what I think is talk therapy.

HolyDude. Your comment is hopelessly flawed in its reasoning. Helen has not provided us with any sort of conclusion as to the purpose of what has happened. She merely suggests that we need to educate ourselves if we want to solve our problems.

In fact, Osama bin Laden has given the American presense on Muslim soil as rationale for his attacks on the West. We are not wanted there by many Muslims and that may or may not have anything to do with their religous beliefs.

I think it is brilliant of Helen to draw comparisons to our current dabate on immigration with how others might feel about American military expansion. It is very thought provoking. But if you read what she has written, you will as Gerry points out see that Helen has not drawn any of theconclusions that you acuse her of doing.

Oh – and James – you’re dumb as dirt, but don’t take that has my having issues with your “presense” here. You have have as much rigght as I do to comment. Just take if at face value. You are dumb as dirt.

Graydog…
she did eat an egg yolk and a slice of toast earlier today but right now she has her head in the waste basket…
right now I’m all F…d U.—-went to a buddy’s of mine to pick up my trailer and got into a talk about things(shit) and he brought up his son who died when he was 8 and he doesn’t know how I’m handling things this well….guess what….I’m not

“We’re here to celebrate the power of words,” President Obama said. Words “help us appreciate beauty and also understand pain. They inspire us to action.” WH Poetry Jam 05/12/2009 http://tinyurl.com/oww3wl

And just in case that vid-link didn’t work, if you go to ABC News and click on the story about the Banker & the Ducklings. . .

“Which, actually, is the main reason I think the GOP’s Pelosi gambit could backfire — it offers the chance to de-partisanize the debate. Many Republicans are clinging to torture because they don’t want to believe that their party has embraced Cold war era communist torture techniques. Liberals’ goal here ought to be to make torture something that neither party will accept going forward. So de-polarizing the debate is the most promising path. Do the Republicans think Pelosi is the key figure here? Ok, knock yourselves out! Let’s investigate the Pelosi torture regime in full. Then maybe we can put an end to the vicious Pelosi torture era.”
Source: The New Republic http://www.tnr.com
Subsection: Blogs – The Plank
Article: The Torture Debate – Who’s Winning? Posted: 05/18/2009 10:32AM
Author: Jonathan Chait
URL: http://tinyurl.com/ph66g2

Denise, I’m not a lawyer nor do I pretend to be one or play one on TV, but if it is land deed searches, I believe that is public information and should be readily available online via the county property appraiser’s office, through probate records, etc. I’ve found it’s usually a matter of figuring out which county/state department is responsible for maintaining the records you seek that is the hardest part cuz as we all know, governments just don’t organize things in a logical manner. . . (and that was two run-on sentences….)

Sherri A my family is not happy with me at all.I
will need to do land searches.to find out what kind of money my mother had they forgot about me.
Just like they threw Sue to the side. I also was a casualty to thier greed.

chloe, thank you for sending the rain our way!! Usually the birds all head for cover, but right now, a young osprey is sitting in the middle of our birdbath, flicking his feathers and reveling in the rain. I’m hoping he’ll pose a little longer so I can get a photo!

Greytdog,
After 19 days of continuous rain, I’m glad it’s moved on towards you. We got 6+ inches this month already, was beginning to think I would never see the sun again, but today it’s bright and beautiful!

Good early evening/afternoon everyone! It’s a very wet Monday here with a forecast for a very wet week – YIPPEE!!!!

Well, sorry to disappoint the Entrepreneurs in this crowd, but I swept away the Daniel in the Lion’s Den image. With this wet weather, however, I’m sure the dogs will provide more iconography for my perusal. The cats suggested that I might wish to inspect their Reliquary (cat box) for objects of theological interest, but I declined.

Denise, google Iowa Concern. They have what has expanded from a rural crisis line and provide multi- services. I think they let you ask legal questions to lawyers or law students on certain days.

They have an 800 number which may or may not work outside of Iowa. If it doesn’t work where you are, other states may have the service. I think some web sites give free legal advice, but I could be wrong.

Werner, I think you are right about “Gramps” Prescot Bush and the others. I believe more were also involved.

I like your idea of helping finance a child’s school lunch. We do have to be careful how we do it. Some people resent being the objects of charity. However, I think my wife, I and the rest might try your idea about school lunches.

June 21 sounds fine with me, though a cousin’s memorial service will be held then. I’ll do stuff before and take credit then. My wife and I need to write our state representatives this week to protest an extension service change.

UAW Tradesman, I remember those old John Deer tractors. Some had only two cylinders and ran with a loud double chug. Our neighbor had one like that.

Your wife and family probably had a better life with your choice. Our farm put us through the darned awfullest things you could imagine. We did have fun too. You can take the man off the farm, but you can’t take the farm out of the man.

We don’t have cable, so we don’t see the Daily Show. I’d watch if I could it seems like good satire.

SecretTalkerA. Thanks. I hope you post again. JFK has become a mythological figure and many people have recreated him in their own image.

I’ve been following your terrific blog for quite some time now. In fact, I love it some much that I’ve even asked you to marry me at one point. 🙂

However, this post is hopelessly flawed in its reasoning.

I am not a fan of Bush, Cheney, Coulter and the rest of those gangsters. However, when the issue is of Islamic terrorism, I find an overwhelming tendency towards exempting Islam from the topic of Islamic terrorism.

Its all too fine to blame the west and the USA and undoubtedly there is a lot to blame. But a dispassionate analysis will show that :

a. Islamic terrorism has NOTHING to do with territory or military expansionism (real or perceived). It is a manifestation of the most pernicious aspects of the Islamic faith. It is unseemly for us to be too harsh on anyone’s faith. But it is inaccurate to cast it purely in secular terms.

b. Of the millions of hectares of land that the US military occupies, how much of it is in Islamic countries? How come the citizens of other countries don’t seem to be predisposed to flying planes into buildings? This is not to say that we are universally welcome – but it is also not factual to suggest that our military bases are a “forced occupation”.

c. And while on the topic of our forced presence, Egypt, the Palestinian authority, Pakistan, Albania are welcome to return our aid-money if it is indeed so unwelcome.

My point is that such simplifications may earn us a quick applause but we should resist the temptation of treating them as a robust analysis.

I agree with thevolunteer idea. So I an volunteering one a fternoon a week at a Hospice office answering phones.Since I can get somewherre only if someone comess and gets me, that is all I can do for now.
Raji, so you are a SoCAl person!!
I was lying in bed watching TV when it hit. AT the first jollt I thought a truchk hit the house!!
Then I watc hed a new potted plllllan shake on tooop of the coumpu8ter desk shake and hoped it wouldn’tfall onoto my printer!!

One more thing
that the Nazis came to power in Germany is to no small part the fault of “Ws” Granpa, Prescott Bush, financing Franz Thyssen who used the money redily provided to fincance a big part of the Bavarian NAzi movmemnt and the first Putsch in Munich in the 20s (the one that put Hilter in prison) and than the starting of the SA under Roehm.

James…
I was 6(maybe 5) when I started to help feed calves…7(maybe 6)when I started fitting ground….real happy at 13 when I got to cultivate instead of hoe…spent a lot of long days on an H John Deere….I was around 30 when my wife said either work 12 hrs and then farm or work 12 hrs and then spend time with family….still married(gardening now)
I liked the Daily Show link but you have to remember it is on the Comedy Channel…

Greytdog
…Jean, one minor note: Nazi Germany did not in fact spring from Christian roots, but from the Volks mythologies. Christianity was seen as weak, whereas Volks myth championed the ancient Nordic/Germanic traits and histories and the emphasis on the purity of the Germanic people. Unfortunately, we in America are now starting to see the same sort of “volks” myth being sprouted from the Pilgrim mythologies…

A few points,
IF I read Jean right, she said sprung from mainstream christian Europe, which is right.

But the German NAzi movement, comming out of the Volkssturm rightwing para-military groups and supporters of nationalist parties and miovements in the Weimar Republik, had nothing to do with any “Volks” mythologies, this umbrella name came only up AFTER the war when mostly english speaking people tried to explain what happened in Germany.

The Nazis based their belives on the Arien and Northern (Norwegian) Mythologies as precived by Richard Wagner…. and the Masses are never aware that the Ariens don’t come frome the depths of German Mythologie but fron the deep of India…..LOL

But the whole Nazi Mythologie was a hodgepodge of Nordic, Germanic, Frisian, and Gral mythology with a good shot of Arien racism and served on Antisemitims as easily recognized victims…….

I have not spent too much time here of late,just read the posts…not the comments, checked out the stable and the changing cast of commenters.Today,I took some time and started reading somewhere around snarky Friday. I really found James’ comments on JFK interesting-it seemed that some did not agree.
I am a Floridian and I am on a first name basis with Frances, Jean and Wilma.I would add that jackets are worn mostly any season in restaurants;removed upon going outside.

I got a little lost on the cheese sandwich theology….and some other things too, but Iwill try to keep up.Probably just lurk,though.

I specially likesd this:
…Collecting school supplies for poor children is another possibility…..

and maybe pick a kid and pack an extra lunch for the last week of any givine month (or 12?), it’s so hard to learn on an empty stomch and by the end of any pay periode (social security as well as low end wages) food gets scarse in poor families…..

As a date I’d suggest
21st of June, Happy day (fits the purpose) and first day of summer…..(in Canada we DO celebrate that)

otherwise:
Jean

P.S. Better still, maybe you could find a way to preserve it and sell it on e bay.

Greytdog,
How about spraying it with acrilic, cutting it out sell it on Ebay to religous wing nuts, put in a marble foor from the winnings and from the leftovers built a new house around it?

Jean, what is your point? It is a stretch to link Mussolini and old hymns with war metophores to make Christianity morally equivalent to Muslimism. That Italy and Germany tried to create their empires was incidental to their religions.

You could as easily say they were the products of progressivism espoused by Woodrow Wilson and others. Germany and Italy also featured some of the same “progressive” elements we see in the modern world. I’m not doing that, but if you blame their actions on Christianity, the other is as logical.

Muslims have been with us for over a thousand years, and they are still stuck were Christians and Jews were. Muslims have not had the Reformation movements to soften hard edges the others have had.

Christians and Jews, as a whole, are more tolerant than Muslims. That is fact proven by how they treat other religions, including branches of their own religions when they become the majority. Like the Kamakazis a small minority of Muslims kill themselves and as many of the enemy as possible too. How many Christians and Jews do that? How many Christians and Jews decapitate their enemies on the internet?

All religions have a degree of intolerance, but Christians and Jews are much different in degree to the small minority of Jihadist Muslims. If they win this cultural war, you, your daughters, and grand daughters will be wearing burkas and head scarfs.

Raji – so does this mean that you can consider your movie experience as a “total” experience? Just glad you’re safe!!!

Your review of the movie is the best I’ve read so far 🙂
I read the book Angels & Demons and found it much more interesting than Da Vinci Code. Brown’s work is formulaic and not always interesting to the point of “can’t put it down”.

But I’m still waiting for the last installment of the Harry Potter serial. Sigh.

I was watching the new Dan Brown/Ron Howard/Tom Hanks thriller Angels & Demons here in Los Angeles at the posh Grove mall off of Fairfax avenue. The audience settled in for a cozy yet loud end of the weekend showing. Hanks is furiously running around Rome with his subtly sultry Israeli co-star as the clock ticks and the tension mounts. Small cars are squealing around piazzas and darting through serpentine streets in a bid to stop a heretical Illuminati from completing its centuries old battle with the church to out the clergy as anti-science anti-logic. Just as I and a few hundred fellow moviegoers were being drawn in to the plot, the theater began to tremble slightly then rather violently. The screen shook and couples grasped for one another. We had just experienced at 4.7 magnitude earthquake on an unstable Pacific Rim. Random people began to look at the person next to them for some quick, rational reassurance. No one was injured but people were questioning their fundamental security. Ironic, wasn’t it? A thriller pitting an unyielding, dogmatic religious institution, the Vatican, against a vengeful, unseen hand with an agnostic academic thrown in the middle to halt a neo-Roman armageddon all for our amusement. In the middle of this quintessentially Hollywood carnival ride where rote religion is in a memetic competition with the reasoning of Galileo, pesky science struck us where we sat with a tectonic reminder of the evolution, age and fragility of the earth on which we reside. I enjoyed the film for what is was and left the theater shaken but not stirred.

Your right about the Volks mythologies. I stand corrected. How about Mussolini tho? Facism got a foothold in both Germany and Italy partly because of the harsh Treaty of Versailles. But the people either didn’t know or pay attention until ALL of them were caught in the grip of it. Thus, it pays to stay vigilant.

UAW Tradesman, I don’t know about this site, but I have heard others describe farmer’s hourly wages. For farmers like ours with no livestock pay day is once a year.

Before Round Up ready soy beans, my wife, our two children, and I hand weeded all of our soybean fields.

Poolman, the only reason I sort of believe the CIA version is other witnesses support it. Whether the CIA lied about the report they issued is another matter. Pelosi is in trouble for allegedly lying about what she heard and when she heard it, truth or lie. Leon Panetta, an Obama appointee to run the CIA, virtually called Pelosi a lier.

I think it is possible that Pelosi’s enemies in the Democratic party are using this issue to get rid of . No one is going after Jay Rockefeller and other Democrats who shared the briefings, at least not yet.

I don’t trust any of them either, and I certainly wouldn’t argue the point with you over who is lying. We are in the dark. As you write, they may all be lying. My bias is showing, because I want them to replace Nancy Pelosi. Thus, I hope she is lying though it is too early to say she is.

Now that you all mention it, I remember hearing about the “creepy” song, but I never heard it.

We just returned from a high school graduation and eight graduation parties. We have driven sixty miles, eaten too much food, and I am too tired to think clearly. BURP!!!

It’s all in the spin.I agree that one piece had to be put together by Fox news

they do put their own special little spin,with a flag,
and someone is always crying,

Lets not forget the puppies,Peas you have opened my eyes.

But UAW my brother works in the auto industry.
The plant he works for was just shuttered for nine weeks he is not sure if it will ever reopen.His future is up in the air. 2 years from retirement,
he does not know what he will do. But he voted for Obama.he likes him.

His son that fought in Iraq,has a great job makes a lot of money he does not want to be taxed any
more voted for McCain,Now he knew Palin was
uninformed,an embarrassment but for him at his age it was all about money.

I am not sure what scared me more was to make sure every one voted so that one rational vote counted for every I just listened to half the stuff
and I had the day off vote.

I guess it is a good thing that people took advantage of their rights as Americans and voted

Jean, one minor note: Nazi Germany did not in fact spring from Christian roots, but from the Volks mythologies. Christianity was seen as weak, whereas Volks myth championed the ancient Nordic/Germanic traits and histories and the emphasis on the purity of the Germanic people. Unfortunately, we in America are now starting to see the same sort of “volks” myth being sprouted from the Pilgrim mythologies.

Christianity went through its own ‘growing pains’ from the bloody power struggles between Rome and Constantinople to the Middle Ages, the Inquisition, Russian Orthodoxy and the Reformation among others. Christianity is still evolving.

These are the words to music we were all taught as children, mostly by rote. The MEANING probably didn’t sink in at the time, or even later in life. But the MEANING was always there in the subconscious, loud and clear. Is it possible to read the lyrics without the music going through your head at the same time? Or vice versa?

(That’s the way music and lyrics work together in our memories. Which is of course why before the written word, ancient peoples used chants for geneologies, ceremonies, etc ., with remarkable accuracy!)

“Onward Christian soldiers, marching as to war,
With the cross of Jesus going on before.
Christ, the royal Master, leads against the foe;
Forward into battle, see His banners go!

Refrain:

Onward, Christians soldiers, marching as to war,
With the cross of Jesus going on before.”

We all know “The Battle Hymn of the Republic”. It was written in 1862 in Boston by Julia Ward Howe. She was an author and reformer involved in the causes for women’s suffrage and prison reform. With her husband, she worked in the anti-slavery movement.

There are five verses:

“Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord,
He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored,
He has loosed the fateful lightning of His terrible swift sword,
His truth is marching on.

The last verse is:
In the beauty of the lilies Christ was born across the sea.
With a glory in his bosom that transfigures you and me;
As he died to make men holy, LET US DIE TO MAKE MEN FREE,
While God is marching on.

Islam is the new kid on the block and trying to play catch-up five or six hundred years after Christianity. The Islamic religion is in the process of ‘growing pains’ with all too familiar parallels to those of Christianity.

Frankly, Christianity has not exactly set a shining example for the new kid. It was only about sixty years ago that the most disastrous calamity that HUMANITY has ever inflicted upon itself was taking place – the Holocaust – beginning in primarily Christian Europe.

Now, at the bidding of their fearless and exalted leaders, young and with raging testosterone Islamic Warriors are going off on suicidal ‘razzias’ with their battle cry of “Allah is Great!” Rarely, but certainly, a few women have joined their ranks.

Did someone mention Japanese Kamakazi pilots? The principles of dying for one’s cause are all the same; only the methodology changes.

UAW, That Sing for Change video must have been the one Fox put out, as it sure isn’t the one that I can find when I google it. The real one is admittedly creepy, but this one is just wrong. It is amazing the effort by the right to over and over attack and discredit this American who is our President. And then to keep making up stuff beyond the campaign to whip up amongst themselves spreading fear and hate.

So very Christian-like. Not! I like the link from Whirled Peas and Greytdog re: the Rumsfeld briefings. These people clothed themselves in scripture and used it to promote and justify their very unchristian-like behavior. I’m sure they tell God how He should run the show, too. It would be interesting to hear what prayers they pray.

James, I don’t see how we can believe anything out of the CIA. They don’t even keep good enough track of what they themselves are doing. And it has been noted that their training is to mislead and deceive. They don’t trust anybody. They don’t believe anybody. But I agree Pelosi is just in CYA mode. Then so are they. I soooo dislike bureaucracy and career politicians. I think the far left stinks as much as the far right. I’m gonna put my chips in with Raji on the purple party. I also heard that joke about who is gonna build the fence.

I didn’t know if you had seen this video from the Daily show regarding the border. It was funny, but sadly shows our ignorance and holds much truth.

UAW, I am a proud card carrying member of the M&H Purple Party, neither right or left and I have no problem grabbing a hoe/shovel handle when needed because once all those illegals are gone, we will all be hoeing.

Greytdog, your response to UAW was good. When I read that article about the BSA, I thought of the Hitler youth groups. Frankly, I can not see a difference between teaching children today to be “terrorists” versus teaching children to fight “terriorists”.

“Now “old time religion” of whatever stripe faces a plethora of threats: new technologies, a shaken world economy, rampant individualism, diversity, pluralism, mobility–all that makes for twenty-first-century life. The shock of the unprecedented can involve not only difficulty but disaster. And fundamentalisms will especially thrive wherever there is violent conflict, and wherever there is stark poverty. This is so simply because these *religiously absolute movements promise meaning where there is no meaning*. For all these reasons, fundamentalisms are everywhere.” (p2)
Source: The Nation http://www.thenation.com
Article: Inside the Obama-Notre Dame Debate posted 05/14/2009
Author: James Carroll
URL: http://www.thenation.com/doc/20090601/carroll?rel=hp_picks

oh good grief. Let’s see: we invaded Iraq because the mighty nation of the United States depended solely on British intel? Check
13 year old girls should have abortions without parental consent (nor should they have access to honest, forthright sex education but told to “just say no”), but 13 year olds can be taught anti-terrorist warfare to protect our country. Check.
2001 the Congress was solely Democratic=controlled and the poor Republicans just couldn’t get their pacifist points of view aired. Check.
Okay UAW, rinse, repeat. Your brain has been washed.

Graydog…
I couldn’t find the link with just the children singing but it did happen….and I still wonder what Raji was getting at ….indoctrination by the left is OK but not by the right….I keep bringing up double standards….what’s wrong with showing kids how to stop terrorists if they are thinking about going into the police force or the military….haven’t the school counselors talked to these kids about life goals and what schooling they should get ….
so now I’m going to rant a little….
there’s people on the left that want to give children(13 year olds) the right to an abortion without their parents knowledge, but won’t be able to get a credit card without their parents signature till their 21(it’s 18 right now)…. the left should be watching out for the left now not the right…

James…
some of the people on this site actually think that farmer’s get an hourly wage….a few years before my dad died he broke his leg(close to ankle) and applied for lost time work disability that he had with an insurance company….he showed a lost the year before so his dollar per hour was $0.00 and that’s just what he got…

I wonder what people are going to do when the only job around is “grab a hoe(shovel)handle”….and you have to go to Mexico or Canada to do that….

UAW this is all BS – american children have been “indoctrinated” since I can remember – we’ve learned to say the Pledge of Allegiance without understanding WHY, just that you must – and watched as others were chastised and ostracized when they felt that they couldn’t join in an oath to an object; we’ve been indoctrinated through our education where we learned how our brave forefathers fought the savages during the Way West, to “Remember the Alamo”, “remember the Maine”, etc. . . we’re indoctrinated with political beliefs from cradle to grave. McCarthyism was all about who refused to fall in line with national indoctrination – so either understand that our national political dogma underscores our lives as Americans or continue to shadow box at whomever you feel like demonizing today. But honestly – it’s Sunday, get out your whetstone, sharpen your sword’s edge, and slay those evil Democratic dragons that you seem to fear so very much.

Raji…..
UAW, no one could disagree with that statement but you either skimmed the article or did not comprehend the facts of training children to fight terrorists. Remind you of any thing?
not sure where your going with this but is this

what your talking about….indoctrinating children to a political belief….

GreytdogA, you have a point about the CIA. Its why I haven’t decided what to believe yet. However, Pelosi has admitted she knew something and chose not to make an issue of it for political reasons. It is not a crime to be a hypocryte.

She said she was trying to win a Democratic majority. Jane Harmon wrote a letter of concern. Nancy couldn’t be bothered. Nancy backed down from accusing the CIA of lying. That is a crime and Pelosi must have realized she was treading into deep water.

So far, I believe the CIA version because the witnesses who were at the briefings agree on the same story. Porter Goss came close to confirming Pelosi’s first version that the CIA said they were going to use water boarding but had not yet.

Lying to Congress is a felony, and it would be risky for CIA operatives to do so. You do have a point, and we won’t know for certain until the government tells us more.

I support the Indians. The Lakota Sioux ( I think) won a payment from the government for a broken treaty giving them the Black Hills. They refused the settlement, and the money is earning interest. I think their holy site should return to them with proper compensation for the proper owners.

Google Brule the Native American music group from around my home. I’ve met them. They are nice folks. The lead singer wrote of his experiences in a book called Hidden Heritage. (I think it is the title.) Yes, we need to agitate for the Indian people. It been a long time coming.

“……our government is a bunch of bullies whose military has gone in and taken over parts of their countries. Couldn’t that be called SQUATTING?….”

kat,
this cherokee gramma in chippewa country agrees with you. it is time for unkle sam to put and end to his bullying colonial ways. and he can start right here on turtle island. this month the white bison wellbriety movement is beginning a sacred healing walk from chemawa indian school in salem,pregon, across the continent to carlisle indian school, in pennsylvania with a petition asking for the u.s. gov’t to official appologize for the federal policy of removing indian children as young as 4 and 5 years old from their families and putting them in gov’t sponsored boarding schools where they were forced to assimilate into a foreign culture and, where thousands of indian children were emotionally, physically and/or sexually abused. most of the dysfunctional behaviors in our indian communities are the legacy of that historic trauma.

margaret and helen first of all and the how each and every one of you has touched my life and how she should do a story about the special people that now connect because of the blog I told her in my letter how I had just read for a long time and then Grandma Katie stopped posting
Werner wanted to set up a call list.Sherri gave me the courage to call my mother’s partner.

This is big for me 🙂

if it was Oprah maybe Margaret and Helen and Matthew will make some money off this blog wouldn’t that be nice for him.His hourly wage would go up:)

Dr Phil still scares me.When he says “Hows that working for you”? I (as I am changing the channel ) hopefully channel is changed before last syllable has escaped,I get its not working and you have the videos to support that fact,and we are going to show america you at you very worst yea
thanks Dr Phil.

Speaking of Pelosi (ok not really since it seems to be used as another Snark). . .
she says blah blah blah
CIA says blah di blah di blah

And this question, for me anyway, arises:

It is a known premise (read on and you’ll get why I use that word) that the CIA engages in “black bag ops” on behalf of the security of this country. In order to engage in such acts, it seems logical to surmise that the CIA also engages in acts of misdirection and redirection so as to protect those involved in said black bag ops
It has been reported that the CIA (or at least some of the agency’s people) engage in “cooking” intel in order to provide part of, if not all, the justification for the invasion of Iraq, i.e. the presence of WMDs.
So here’s my question: Why are we so willing to believe the CIA’s version now? Personally speaking, if the intel can be cooked to provide the persuasion for the Iraq war – intel provided not only to the American public and Congress but later used in Powell’s UN debacle – then why is anyone assuming the CIA is NOW telling the truth and Pelosi is not? There’s too much cognitive dissonance going on in this issue and no one is really interested in sorting through everything, and very interested in nit-picking through the mess in order to “prove” the efficacy of their own political stance. In others words, justice and truth don’t matter- being politically assured is.

SherriA, I didn’t know “shut up” was from an earlier post. Now I understand.

I’m not saying anyone should do this, but we do. Our church picks a few deserving families down on their luck and delivers a meal for Christmas day.

Collecting school supplies for poor children is another possibility.

Pictures of us at computers etc would be a nice touch if you could be sure our appearance didn’t scare pets and small children.

Its nice when oldsters win. Drudge has a link to a story about the world’s oldest mother aged 66. I didn’t read the story.

Any time except Memorial Day weekend and June 1 is fine with me.

Back to Snarky Friday.

Jean, I thought you were a classy lady. I treated you with respect and I may have praised you once or twice. I tried to be polite as I am trying to be now.

Last week, we argued two hypotheticals. I “knew” I was right and dumped a ton of documentation to support my view. I have done this to a few others, and they have either seen my point or rolled their eyes and agreed to disagree.

You, on the other hand tried to insult me twice when I didn’t deserve it. Your reaction reminded me of my second grade class mates who cried and told the teacher after I revealed there is no Santa Claus.

You disappointed me. I thought you were better than that. You can be master of your beliefs, or your beliefs master you.

Since you took liberties and made assumptions about my character, I will return the favor.

You are Miss Jean Brodie.

Nancy Pelosi is a politician who would testify against her own mother for political gain. “Heinous crime” is Newt’s way of playing politics. Nancy would do the same if the situation was reversed. I do agree with you. We don’t know enough to accuse her of high criminality–yet.

Just had to share this: Yesterday while running errands I had to stop at the big box animal food store. . .it was 12:48, sun blazing down, no wind, and you could cut the humidity with a knife. . . and as my post on 05/15/09 5:15pm notes, it’s the shade that makes the choice when parking. . . so there I was driving around the parking lot when suddenly off in the corner I saw it! A totally shaded parking spot – a heavily shaded parking spot – a heavenly heavily shaded parking spot! And I went for it. . . and slung my car in there just seconds in front of a guy in a huge F150!. Luckily there was enough to share – his driver’s side was in the shade, so he pulled in next to me. He looked at me as we started the trek to the store and all he said was ” how long a Floridian?” That just cracked me up.

Good old Newt is all up in arms about convicting Nancy Pelosi for the ‘heinous’ crime of not fessing up to knowing about the ‘torture’ that the Bush Administration didn’t do anyway since it wasn’t illegal.

Huh?

The Conservative Republican true believers will buy into it though. The same way that a few people fervently see a religious image in a piece of toasted cheese sandwich.

Politics as usual in the Conservative camp. The tragic part of all this is that in the meantime, serious problems that really need attention go on being neglected. Again, politics as usual.

I’m no great fan of Nancy Pelosi. I thought she kinda sat on her hands during Bush, Inc. But c’mon.

I think I am better off doing what I have been doing for the past two days. Working in our little courtyard, re-arranging the bromiliads. A lot of work for an old broad!

The exterior of our townhouse complex was painted during the past couple of weeks. They did a beautiful job. But….the painters sort of trashed the landscaping in the courtyard and even worse in our Pitiful Little Patch Garden out back. Of course, it couldn’t be helped.

Maybe we can con our sons into whipping it into shape to earn their keep when they come out this summer. At least we don’t have three acres to maintain anymore!

Just catching up; Friday’s snarky retorts (which I thought was a keeping it real moment) were some of the best posts in a long time. I was beginning to think I was visiting an old folk’s home, what with all the reminiscing and making nice. As for myself, I aspire to be more like Margaret and Helen, youthful, truthful, and even disrespectful when necessary.

You beat me to it Greytdog. Whoo Hoo, way to go for the filly. We won’t have a triple crown winner but looks like Calvin has a chance. I don’t think there is any thing in history about a jockey winning the triple crown. Just think, she won the Kentucky Oaks, got sold, moved to a new barn all in two weeks and still won the Preakness. Calvin made a good choice and is one hell of a jockey. For those not following races, Calvin Borel rode Mine That Bird to win the Kentucky Derby and rode Rachael A the day before to win the $400K Kentucky Oaks. He won the Derby two years ago on Street Sense.

Suggested activities:
Random acts of kindness
Pick a local issue and become an activist/agitator to create an inclusive community (could be a food bank, senior citizens, education, whatever)
Write to your state and/or Congressional reps and let them know what you think about the issues
Take time for family and friends – celebrate your community
Take a pic of your activities (James and Werner would be “snapped” at their ‘puters) and post ’em?
Go Troll Hunting. . . .(snicker) hmm. . . .oh wicked

Telling the likes of Rush Limbaugh, Anne Coulter, and Sarah Palin to sit down and shut the hell up is from one of Helen’s earlier posts…you should look it up in the archives. It was, as always, well written and meaningful.

You’re absolutely right that short, handwritten notes are better than emails….so glad you’re a regular corresponder w/ your elected officials and newspaper editor!

Werner, I’m glad for your company on the M&H Day! Any suggested dates anyone?

Wouldn’t it be fun to choose a date to celebrate Helen’s spur to action, then come here and report about what we did?!?

Sherri
……I declare a National Margaret & Helen Day — a day to volunteer in your community, learn the names of your neighbors, write a letter to an elected official, pass out registration forms to non-voters, tell a hate-mongering right-wing Republican to sit down and shut the hell up, and eat a piece of pie……

I strongly second that, let’s set a date, advertise it and let’s get rolling!

Set a date one, max two, months down the road and than spread the word!

Everytime I hear a rightie say “they hate us for our freedoms” I want to scream STFU. THey hate us because our government is a bunch of bullies whose military has gone in and taken over parts of their countries. Couldn’t that be called SQUATTING?

GreytdogA, I wish I could have heard your West Virginian Scottish brogue. That’s funny. So is your Florida list. Maybe children who move about often have some advantages over the majority who don’t.

SherriA you make some good points. We need more good citizens like you. I am probably a pain to my representatives because I write to them a lot. Short, hand written letters have more impact than group e mails. Sometimes, I call. We all should do that when time permits.

Writing letters to the editor and contacting the news media also helps.

I have never told a hate-mongering left wing Democrat to “sit down and shut the hell up” because it would be wrong. I did tell several of our Democratic representatives they were “educated fools,” at a public meeting, and they let me live.

Glad I missed out on snarky Friday. I had a perfectly lovely Friday. I don’t turn on my computer on Fridays. It’s my one evening a week to reconnect with family, friends, and self — no computer, no TV, no cell phone. A good bottle (or three) of wine and face-to-face conversations with family and friends. I highly recommend it!

In light of H&M’s post, exactly what are we doing about problem-solving? How many of you have had a face-to-face conversation with an elected official in the past three months? Sent a hand-written letter? Made a phone call? Encouraged those in your circle of influence to do the same?

Do you know the average state senator receives 11 letters a year from constituents? Have you written your senator lately? This site is filled with MANY who opine…..how many of us are actually activists?

I declare a National Margaret & Helen Day — a day to volunteer in your community, learn the names of your neighbors, write a letter to an elected official, pass out registration forms to non-voters, tell a hate-mongering right-wing Republican to sit down and shut the hell up, and eat a piece of pie.

Aussie Blue Sky, the American base in Iraq is a monstrosity planned before the surge when the government expected our troops to be under siege. Little countries have smaller budgets than that base has.

Based on my experience, the malls, etc are there to give the troops the amenities of home and to keep them on the base where they are safer.

I served on the secret part of a base. It was like living in a posh prison camp. Nobody left while we were there. We didn’t need to. The secret base near you must be run the same.

James & Poolman, what you’re describing isn’t limited to military kids. Because of my parents work (non government related) we were global gypsies – but resilient. My bro & I have often talked about our ability (as he puts it) to “merge and morph” into whatever community we find ourselves living. . . complete with accents. We about drove my mom nuts one year after spending four weeks visiting relatives – 2 weeks with my dad’s relatives in Matewan WV, then 2 weeks with Scots relatives in Melrose – ever hear a West Virginian Scottish brogue? We could roll and rumble those r’s and twang with the best of them. . .

Poolman, I wondered if what I saw was universal. Your experiences sound the same as what I saw. Service men and women share some of the same survival traits, I think. A level of detachment. At the time, I thought it must be harder for children and teenagers because that time of life is difficult enough. We were so close in age to the high school students some became friends too.

One complaint the girls had was their father’s superior officers pressured them to baby sit their kids.

Did you find your experiences helped you later in life? You coped with things most teenagers and children don’t.

I lived in some places for a year, some 2 or 3, Hawaii for 5, and that was cool. I have a good friend who is German and a couple other army brat friends that I keep up with on FB. Some people are kindred spirits and will always be friends.

On the other hand, the constant moving and change cost me a lot. It was hard to leave friends and then try to fit in somewhere else. Sometimes it was in the middle of the school year. But we were all in the same boat, so it made it a bit more tolerable. There is a sense of understanding among military brats.

With change, the natural response is to withdraw and build our “facade”. That way it is easier to leave and not have as much emotional pain. That is probably why the Air Force brats were superficial to you. We are products of our training. We do what we must to survive.

Re: Oprah. Might be. I watch the show on a regular basis and she has recently started to spend more time on the computer. She says she now enjoys facebook and Twitter. Maybe, someone told her about Margaret and Helen.

Helen, you are so right about the “military bases” on foreign soil. Not really military bases, either. The one in Baghdad is a US Government city – it’s huge, has its own shopping mall, cineplex and restaurants – it’s not a military base, it’s an ‘enduring’ takeover of Iraqi (s)oil. Out of respect for your health I won’t say how much it’s costing American taxpayers ……

The US base here in the central Australian desert is used by the CIA and the NSA for communications spying. That’s all we know – but of course, no Australian has ever seen the base -the base doesn’t even buy any supplies in Australia for fear that someone might figure out how many personnel are working hard recording the personal conversations of innocent Americans.

BTW, a hectare is 2 1/2 acres. It’s very easy to convert in your head after you live with it a while.

Poolman, the Air Force brats we knew made friends easily and some friendships seemed superficial, mostly on the surface. They had to be since they didn’t stay in one place for long. Is that how it was for you?

Yes, everybody judges based on the past. It applies to groups and nations too. It would be nice if we could fix ourselves and our country. Maybe it will happen.

I grew up an army brat. The military families are a mix of all cultures. I think you develop a tolerance and appreciation for others. I made some lifetime friends and lived in some nice places.

We lived on or near many military bases. We were immersed in the culture, as my parents preferred to live off base.

Most welcomed us. America was on a high back then. We had a lot of respect in the world. We were envied.

Others hated us. Some felt we had no right in their country.

I think if we are in another’s land we should respect their customs. We should not force our breakfast cereal down their throats.

Helen, I like the Mexicans in tanks and making army bases scenario.

Unfortunately, the reality is they do have a large “underground base” to support the drug and illegal alien “business”. I don’t think a fence is the answer, but that’s another debate…

There is good and bad in all peoples and societies and religions.

Everybody judges based on the past – that which is already formed in their mind – from what they have experienced since youth. It is tough to teach an old dog some new tricks, I hear. Maybe if we quit our crusading and fix ourselves and our country first, then we can best help fix others. I’m glad my God judges the heart. Not the cover.

Sorry folks but “Sharky” anything belongs to parrotheads – ever see a Jimmy Buffett concert when he sings Sharks? Hysterical!

Raji – my other comment was sort of tongue in cheek but mostly sarcastic. I’ve seen enough of the Ugly American mindset overseas that I just get really snarky about it sometimes. There is enough “leftist radical” in me that it rears up periodically and in sarcastic ways. Or it could just be the malathion that they spray down here to rid the area of mosquitos?

As for Oprah stopping by this site without advertising some great big American Cuz I Love You giveaway – don’t think so! Maybe it was another one of colorful’s personalities?

Raji, I will try not to be so wordy. I ” beat on the band wagon with opinions you have heard before” because other folks do the same. Both sides are repeating ourselves at times.

I saw the link Whirled posted elsewhere and here. I have lived long enough see many polls like this. Don’t count your chickens before they’re hatched.

The people surveyed are enamoured with hope and change. Big events must evolve to freeze youthful loyalties in place. So far, we are still a world in flux, and if what I fear we will face during the next ten years hits us, those folks will change their minds about some things.

” IMO, has been the problem with all occupations – be they imperialistic Spain, Britain, or American – we are doing these countries a favor for pete’s sake by even being there and they bloody well better appreciate it.”

Greytdog, I am trying to understand your post. It smells of Tongue in Cheek as I can not feel from most of your posts that this is a stance you usually take. Living in FL made me a little snarky also 🙂

Whirled peas, another good link. We will see the purple party in my lifetime. My generation had lost interest as Helen has posted several times. The baby boomers could have cared less as it was all about “ME”. Hopefully the younger generation will make history and I do think they will because the issues that concerned us are no concern to them as the article pointed out.

My oh my, this post sure did bring the vermin out, didn’t it? Truly must be the weather or maybe the full moon. Gee Helen, this post brought out the worst of us. Even I’m a little snarky tonight.

James, you are entitled to your opinions as much as any one else here but sometimes you do beat on the bandwagon with opinions we have all heard time and time again. Did you read the article on the link Whirled posted regarding the purple party evolves. There is a new world out there.

UAW wrote: I personally think that training for gun safety and the proper use of firearms is great…should be required in school(could have competition just like basketball).

UAW, no one could disagree with that statement but you either skimmed the article or did not comprehend the facts of training children to fight terrorists. Remind you of any thing?

Tom, I don’t need meds and don’t take any. I didn’t attack anyone. They attacked me, and I responded. If they are polite to me, I’m polite to them. I am a calm individual, even when trading insults to a bunch of words on a computer screen.

Wow….I don’t think James took his meds today…I hope you can calm down so that you don’t hurt yourself. Maybe re-read Helen and Margaret’s post and remind yourself why we are all here. Just a suggestion.

Oh Helen and Margaret, you two are just the best!! All you have to do post one of your wonderful posts (They are ALL wonderful…even the Breast Feeding one from WAY back) and BAM then conversations start…some good, some not so good…some true, some not so true. But a GREAT TIME is had by all. You two should be VERY proud!!!!! I just love your insight and, most of all, your humor. Thank you!!!

Denise – it could be worse. Really. It could have been Dr. Phil who dropped by. oh ugh.

I know it’s snarky Friday cuz today I really wanted to just slap down this really irritating client – but instead I let her whine (no cheese, sorry) and vent, then sent her on her way. . . luckily, when I left she wasn’t anywhere in sight or I really would have been very tempted to run her over. So it’s rather nice to know that a lot of folks around the country are feeling snarky – I don’t feel so speshul 🙂

Okay,who do you believe,with some of the crazy
speaking in tongues. Telling us to pray. Personal
attacks on regular posters.It would be nice for
Margaret and Helen to get a little time on network
T.V.

Like I have said before I was just a faithful reader
until one post caught my eye.Then one poster dropped out of site. I was so worried.

I will still make calls you all have taught me so much.

I hold fast to my claim that Dick Cheney should
just be quiet for a while.What good does it do now?Maybe later his white house memories will hold some historical value,like how to not to shoot your best friend in the face? These things will help
future generations.

It sounds awful where you are Greytdog. It must be bad if you are giving up on your garden. Can you catch wash water in your kitchen sink and dump that on the plants without killing them with soap? I hope you get some better weather.

Our weather has been mostly cooler than normal for over a year. Today is dank and gloomy with just enough rain to make it damp but not enough to do the plants much good. We may have a frost on the weekend.

Yup it’s the weather. Dunno about the rest of y’all, but here in Florida – oh ick. We’re starting the “summer” which means oppressive humidity (you sweat while showering) and then afternoon thunderstorms that really don’t do anything other than spark brushfires, muckfires, and bump up the humidity even more. We’ve had the A/C on now for almost two months. I’ve given up on the veggie garden – too much consumption of water to justify three tomato plants, two zucchini plants, onions, and such. The herbs are hanging in there but barely. And when combined with everyday chaos – oy! All I can say is thank god it’s friday – I was ready to chew off my leg just to escape the traps left by the weekly turmoil! Even the dogs are being snarky – and don’t even look at the cats sideways – they’re all acting like trolls. Sigh. Okay, where’s that chocolate?

NancyPants, if you know so much and can still write what you did about people who need those jobs, you are twisted soul. You should be ashamed. I’m giving you the benefit of the doubt and assume you are ignorant.

My point is sharia law is not like our country’s orthodox religious laws. It allows for wife beating, execution of gamblers and drinkers, killing homosexuals, crime victims exacting revenge, and similar measures Sarah Palin’s congregation would never dream of. It is supposed to apply only to Muslims, but others get caught in it too.

An independent movie is being released to show what led up to the stoning of a young Iranian woman.

Jean, my comments are no myopic than yours . Open your mind to new concepts.

NancyPants, “scroll on by” is a wonderful thing. Use it.

I know people who do some of the jobs you mentioned. I know others who were priced out of the job market, because they were non- unionized and illegal aliens accepted lower wages. Save your mockery for what you know. On this subject, you don’t know squat.
Is that brief enough for you?

As for parts of Britain living under sharia law – whatever – so what’s your point? There are those in this country who want all of us to live under ultraorthodox religious laws too – only I believe we call them Fundamentalist Christians aka Palin’s Peeps. (All squishy, puffed sugared air, and not healthy for human consumption)

Yea, Another great post! Thanks, Helen and Margaret. I always enjoy your take on all these comedians we call repuke nicans.

Dick cheney is playing with a live grenade. When it blows he’ll be taking a few pals with him. I think he has so much pent up shit in his head, it’s becoming imperative that he confess or blow his brains.

I believe he must have taken a tiny tiny honest look at himself in comparison to General Powell and had an enormous fit of self hatred for being the Dick he really is, thus his comments regarding the General. I vote to let him tell all before he starts shooting people in the face again, besides it’s fun to watch.

Oh dear, Margaret, I’d WAY rather have Hispanics than French Canadians.

But seriously, how DARE those people leave their impoverished villages and come up here to work! The very nerve of them, wanting to take those plum jobs away from us; like landscaper, fish plant worker, busboy. Oh, and let’s not forget motel maid. That’s my real career goal, which I’ll probably never realize now.

Build that wall, I say! Save our desirable jobs for Americans!

P.S. James, if you have so goddamn much to say, why don’t you just write your own blog and stop clogging up the works over here?

The Omaha death is also becoming a political issue. Jim Suttle, the mayor elect had said he thought illegal immigrants ought not be prosecuted nor should the the companies who hire them. Hal Daub, who lost made a big issue of immigration.

The man was in Omaha for at least 11 years. He had three DUIs and committed some petty crimes. During those years, no one checked his legal status. The information became available on Tuesday afternoon shortly before the polls closed. Now, a talk show host and others are accusing the city of withholding information. Radio stations are playing tapes of Suttle’s saying we should decriminalize illegal aliens.

The man apparently worked as a dry wall installer and was on his way to his job at Fremont, Ne company. His holding a long time job illustrates authorities’ and employers’ inability to keep track of illegal aliens. Now people want to out the company.

Yes, like the flu we don’t pay much attention to most similar accidents. However, this case personalizes illegal immigration for Omahans.

The girl died because a man who shouldn’t have been here ran a red light. She died because our government and law enforcement failed. They are as much at fault as the driver. We still don’t know if the man had insurance. I’m glad the man is safe in jail. Otherwise, his future existence would be in doubt.

I agree CT, the world has too many people as it is. Unfortunately many countries have welfare systems predicated on creating young workers to pay the bills. European countries’ low birth rates are forcing them to find other workers to replace the unborn young people. Muslims with their high birth rates immigrate to Europe to fill the void. Steyne says the Muslim immigrants are and will continue to change the culture. Small parts of Britain, for example live under virtual Sharia Law with arranged marriages and honor killings. That is why Russia wants its citizens to have more children.

Sanjay, I have done nothing to you. Why don’t you persuade your parents to let you out of the basement, or do they lock you in the attic?

HonoluluSally, thank you for the complement. I like you and how your mind works. We are even, I scratch my head at some of the things you “say” too.

Its true polls rank Kennedy at number ten or twenty and even higher, but as the baby boomers die, historians will become more objective, and his rating will fall a bit.

Kennedy was a sick man. His war injuries and other illnesses left him weak and consumed with pain . Doctors treated him with staggering quantities of prescription narcotics. His ability to function as a competant president was more impressive than many of his legislative accomplishments.

Kennedy had promised air support to the invading Cubans under a plan developed during the Eisenhour administration. The original plan may have been sufficient to let the Cubans gain afoot hold and eventually depose Castro. As it was, the mission was doomed to fail before it started. Unlike our modern politicians, Kennedy was man enough to take responsibility for his mistake.

Khrushev and Kennedy met at a summit which proved to be a disaster, because Khrushev came to believe Kennedy was a weak man who could be intimidated. Both of Kennedy’s failures led to the Cuban missile crisis which might have ended the world as we knew it. Both leaders were rational men, and they found a compromise to end the crisis.

I don’t know if it is true, but I have read Kennedy’s administration tried to assassinate Castro through creative methods sometimes involving the Mob.

Kennedy also unwittingly helped destablise South Vietnam when he tacitly approved the assassination of the Nu (sp) family. They were in the equivalent of Ho Chi Minn in the North. For good or ill, Kennedy started our escalating involvement in Southeast Asia.

In the beginning, JFK feared the Civil Rights movement. He instructed his brother Bobby to wire tap Martin Luther Kings phones because he suspected him of being a communist. Like Nixon, Kennedy was a friend of Joe McCarthy.

In 1957, Kennedy voted against Eisenhour’s Civil Rights Act. In 1961, a civil rights demonstration in Albany turned violent, and Kennedy who believed SNIC was involved called them SOB’s.

Good political reasons favored Kennedy’s putting civil rights low on his list. Polls showed most Americans were more worried about the Soviets than minority rights. Kennedy’s own party was dominated by southerners, many of whom were segregationists.

For these reasons, Kennedy initially opposed the March on Washington. He also condemned the Freedom Riders as unpatriotic because they were creating a distraction during the Berlin crisis. I remember that because several of my college classmates were Freedom Riders. One served time in jail and sent regular reports to our student newspaper.

Kennedy became an active civil rights supporter when James Meridith applied to the White only University of Mississippi. After courts let him in, Bobby Kennedy federalized the Mississippi National Guard and sent in federal troops to restore order.

JFK also changed his mind and supported the March on Washington after Martin Luther King agreed to White House in put. As a result, Malcolm X called it the “Farce on Washington.”

Kennedy was unable to manage Congress as LBJ and Eisenhour had. The two branches of government were wary of each other during JFK’s administration. Kennedy, himself said, “A good many programs I care about may go down the drain as a result of this( his relationship with Congress. It was one of his failures.) We may all go down the drain.”

J. Edgar Hoover maintained his power by collecting dirt on politicians. He knew about Kennedy’s womanizing and his relationship with Marilyn Monroe. I wouldn’t have put it past Hoover to black mail Kennedy.

Kennedy lost popularity near the end. In fact polls showed Goldwater leading him. In fairness, Kennedy was damned if he did and damned if he didn’t because of the times. He passed no major civil rights legislation. It remained for LBJ with the help of Republicans to pass it in Kennedy’s name.

Kennedy did try to make life easier for minorities by enforcing laws already on the books and by tweaking existing government programs.

I was devastated when Kennedy died. I was studying for a test when the radio announcer said “We have bulleton from Dallas…” I turned on my tape recorder and caught it all. Kennedy was a good man and I think if given the time he would have been a better president than he was. He was a good, not great president. His image was greater than his performance.

This Omaha accident had everything to do with immigration. We hear now that ICE was aloof and reluctant to share information with local police. The driver got his first drivers license on a false Social Security card. Before 9/11 the government and law enforcement didn’t share such information. No one even knew he was illegal until this week. That is inexcusable. A girl died and a family was devastated because that man was here illegally.

Politicians here have also debated the problems with old drivers, teenagers, and others at relatively high risk to create accidents. Illegal immigrants’s numbers are too small to cause many such accidents, but my guess is they do more damage as a percentage of their numbers. Many can’t speak English, and they have a hazy knowledge of our traffic laws. We don’t need another class of potentially problem drivers, especially if they are here illegally.

Ellsworth AFB, South Dakota suffered an image problem with the locals. The base paid everyone with $2.00 bills and as the money circulated, people in Rapid City and Box Elder experienced an epiphany. Within a month, the base didn’t seem so bad.

When I was stationed in England, I moved off base as soon as my wife arrived. We lived in a 450 year old thatched roofed cottage, and my wife shopped on market day just as the blokes did. We lived across the street from the Crofts, who’s son produced the British comedy “Are You Being Served.”

We attended a British church, and we went native to such a degree that when we were on a French Eurorail train, the conductor asked for our IDs because he didn’t believe we were Americans eligible for the tourist discount. Many others in our squadron lived off base.

I agree, many Americans stayed on base, but not all of us did. It was a once in a life opportunity, and my wife and I were determined not to waste it. We saw virtually all of the UK on various road trips.

“The Russians know this. They have procreation holidays and give money and prizes to couples who have children. Italy is considering similar family encouragement.”

Sound like some recent Reich you’ve heard of?

Here’s another very difficult problem. The earth can barely support the current population, and younger generations are going to have to scramble to support the boomers and my generation (just slightly pre-boomer) as well as themselves.

When I started receiving Social Security benefits, a 40-something friend said “save some for me.” It may not be there for her.

“….True, a native might have run the traffic light and smashed into their car, but the culprit was not a citizen. He had broken the law to come here, and he had had several DUI tickets. On that day, the girl would have lived had the man been deported and stopped from re crossing the border years ago.”

James, the man who caused my crash ALSO had several DUI tickets and had, according to an anonymous caller, hurt others before me. I’m not in ANY WAY trying to suggest that the incident you describe is not HORRIBLE — I can’t imagine going through any of that. It’s just that I still think it’s not simply because the guilty party was an illegal. If my “assaulter” (vehicular assault) hadn’t been born, or hadn’t been sold so much alcohol that day, I’d not still have a lot of pain. Too many if-onlys here.

I’m not justifying anything, I don’t know the answer to the immigration problem (or many other problems either!).

The idea of people being up in arms about crimes committed by illegals kind of reminds me of the heightened awareness of swine flu: we lose some 30,000 people each year to “regular” flu, but a new strain comes in and we freak out. It’s not as if the crimes committed by illegals are new — or if the crimes will go away if we are suddenly rid of our “unwanted guests.”

uncommonsense wrote “I think we can understand without too much effort how Iraqis and Afghanis feel about our controlling their governments and disrupting their cultures.’

I have to respectfully disagree with this particular point of your post. I don’t believe that we understand at all. From the American point of view, we are bringing democracy, ordered society, and enlightenment to these people – the problem is not with us but with them! And that, IMO, has been the problem with all occupations – be they imperialistic Spain, Britain, or American – we are doing these countries a favor for pete’s sake by even being there and they bloody well better appreciate it. We believe, as good imperialists, that we are bestowing a wondrous gift of civilization on these lesser mortals, but we resent their very presence and influence on our own. It is one thing to have McDonalds in Kabul, a whole ‘nother thing to have a mosque in Miami.

Jean, I don’t mean to be the genealogy police, but if your paternal great-grandmother was a full-blooded Sioux, don’t you also have seven other nonnative great-grandparents? My maternal great-great-great-grandmother was Cherokee. The rest of my ancestors were immigrants, legal? Well no one asked the Indians as far as I know; to their detriment their immigration policy was pretty lax.

Two years ago, when I passed the gathering spot used by day-labors in my town, there were dozens of men available for hire, now a handful of men assemble on that same spot. I’ll know when the recession is over, I suspect, when their numbers increase. Helen is on top of things as usual, our problem isn’t the fact they come here to work when we need them, but we are afraid of their culture overtaking our society. Helen, your analogy of foreign nationals inside our border to our occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan is spot on, we welcomed them, or at the least ignored them, when we needed them to construct schools and pick crops, but we bash them for staying, and in some cases, birthing new American citizens. I think we can understand without too much effort how Iraqis and Afghanis feel about our controlling their governments and disrupting their cultures.

in re to American military bases and boosting local economies: the only economy that I ever say being boosted by the presence of an American military base was prostitution. In Europe, Americans would mingle with the local population at the pubs, shops, and such, but in Asia – no way. They lived on base, shopped at the PX, socialized at either the Officer’s Club or the NCO Club or the country club where they isolated themselves from many of the CC members anyway. . . If you saw an American in the local market, they were 1) missionaries shopping for their weekly groceries, 2) tourists shopping for souvenirs of their trips 3) military police strutting around harassing vendors (another story). But boy, those whorehouses, bars, and “massage parlors” lined the road leading to the bases. . . first time I saw a whorehouse was when we went to Subic Bay. .

James, we can always isolate statistics that are skewed to our point of view. Here in FL, for instance, we have quite a few elderly drivers. Now a few years ago, we had several incidents state-wide involving vehicular manslaughter charges because the senior drivers were medically impaired – Alzheimers, diminishing sight, diminishing depth perception, etc. And it came out that the process was just as much as fault for this events as the drivers – at that time licenses were being renewed via USPS/internet as long as the driver had a record of “safe” driving. Many of these senior drivers were snowbirds who’d lost their home state license due to diminished eyesight, recommendation of physician, etc. but managed to keep their driving privileges here. It took about 6 deaths for the state legislature to take notice. Now instead of perpetually renewing your license, you have to submit to an onsite vision test every 10 years. Oh yes, we all feel soooo much safer. And in order to get a DL here, a teen just has to have parent verification that the teen has 40+ of nighttime driving, 60+ daytime driving, pass at least 60% of the written exam, pass at least 50% of the driving exam (no parallel parking) and no traffic violations during the tenure of the learner’s permit. Does anyone really think a parent is going to NOT sign off on that scrap of paper? And in CFL a lot of accidents that are drunk driving related involved young adults between the ages of 18-25, then jumps to adults between 38-50. ANd we are a no-fault insurance state – so a lot of folks here barely have PIP much less full coverage. It’s has nothing to do with immigration – the accidents only take on that flavor when a Latino driver is involved.

Thanks for making this morning fun to wake up to! Helen … and Margaret too!! It’s clearly bonus day.

As for what to do about The Dick … I am with those who love it that he is out there showing the face of today’s Republican Party for what it is. It has come a “fur piece” from the days of Lincoln, and even from Eisenhower, both of whom have probably spun themselves dizzy in their graves.

I don’t believe that it’s truly possible to “solve” a problem that a psycho-sociopath like The Dick represents. But what I do most long for is the day when The Dick and his fellow criminals face the music for their heinous crimes. What many of us suspected has now been revealed by Col Wilkerson. These people tortured others … NOT to safeguard Americans (which still would not have justified torture) … but in order to find a non-existent link to justify invading a country that never posed an imminent threat to us (but that does have a LOT of OIL and a strategic geographic location in the ME). And the illegal invasion and occupation have also made Halliburton (hence The Dick) enormously rich.

Torture is simply wrong under any circumstances and the US has signed international conventions against it, so we are clearly in violation of those conventions. But yes, it is effective in getting people to tell us whatever we want them to in order to make the torture stop. As for getting facts or reliable information … no way.

Yes, I believe Pres Obama is very good for the kids. Last night my 6 year old grandson asked that we turn up the TV when Obama was on ’cause he wanted to listen to him. He sat and watched the whole thing.

James, you are a most unusual farmer. Kind of like Kevin Costner in “Field of Dreams”. Glad to know you EVEN if I scratch my head at some of the things you “say”.

IMO, President Kennedy was not just an average President. He was a great one. He wasn’t perfect, but he thought of the little guys – us. He was classy, charismatic, and inspirational. He put into play a lot of new programs – one that affected me was having to do exercises and sit ups, etc. for physical ed in elementary school. Oh, and the exciting space race!

He was the first president I was aware of, and I cried when he died.

I never felt there was a great president after that. Johnson, Nixon, Carter, Reagan, Bush, Bush, Clinton, or anyone else I am missing – a mixed bag of mediocre, puppet, not too shabby, and dumb founding.

You forget that Kennedy was all for civil rights. We still maintained a high level of public education, family values, and respect. True, he made some mistakes, we had a few scares, and he loved his women, but all in all, he was a great president.

J. Edgar Hoover was his nemesis. Kind of reminds me of Dick Cheney in the creepy rankings.

Barack Obama is now the John F. Kennedy for my kids. I believe they will benefit from his tenure as our President. They have hope and are not cynical. This is a President they can believe in and follow. I call that great.

Well said. It would help reduce tension if America would stop enabling another country in its land-grabs and military outpost building and chemical weapons dropping on civilians. You know the one I mean. Its name starts with the letter I but it sure don’t have a Q in it. The one we give $6.8 billion to every day. Every frickin DAY.

Honolulu Sally, I did hear part of his speech on a talk show. I also heard his calling attention to graduates of specific educational disciplines. I didn’t hear all of the speech, but my first impression was “Ask not what your country can do for you, but ask what you can do for your country.” I was young and idealistic in those days and Kennedy’s speech was enough to send chills down my back. The part I heard of Obama’s speech was inspiring too. The lucky graduates must have left feeling they could make a difference.

Kennedy was a war hero, an intellectual, and a cold warrior, who worked for a reaproachment with the Soviets while maintaining a strong defense. Compared to today, he was a fiscal conservative who like Reagan believed in cutting taxes to stimulate the economy. In those pre- poisoned partisan days, Kennedy and Goldwater were friends. Somewhere I have a copy of the Kingston Trio’s “This is the New Frontier.”

JFK was going to lead us to great things, and sometimes he did. One of our most historic achievements was landing men on the moon. Another was the Peace Corps. But Kennedy was an average, not a great president.

Obama has a thinner resume than Kennedy, and he faces enormous problems. Both men are good speakers, but running a country requires a different set of skills and also luck. Thus, I withhold judgment on Obama’s future success as a president. So far, his record is mixed, but he has “only just begun.” I do like some of what he has done. He is my employee, and he remains on probation.

Susan in CT, thanks for the complement. I like your posts too. I agree natives cause more vehicular destruction than illegal people because their numbers are larger. I had a similar experience. A native -born drunk driver nearly killed me thirty years ago.

However, this specific family lost a four year old daughter with serious injuries to the mother and a brother. True, a native might have run the traffic light and smashed into their car, but the culprit was not a citizen. He had broken the law to come here, and he had had several DUI tickets. On that day, the girl would have lived had the man been deported and stopped from re crossing the border years ago.

Other cases repeat here and across the country. At least forty people around Omaha were victims of identity theft. One of the illegal aliens said after she was caught that she felt no responsibility for causing economic hardship on the victims because she didn’t steal anyone’s identity. She merely bought the information from the one who did.

I agree these crimes didn’t happen BECAUSE the perps are illegals. However, had they been compelled to apply for residence and been screened authorities might not have let many of them in. At least some were criminals in their home countries too.

Cases like this accident have angered Omahans because an illegal alien and his victim are no longer abstractions. They are real persons who’s pictures are splashed across our television screens as angry listeners call local talk shows. I don’t live in Omaha, and am merely observing. The anger people are feeling down there is noteworthy. 70 years ago, they might have started a race riot as in the past.

As I wrote, I think we need immigration as long as it is legal. My Asian relatives are angry that so many people are living her illegally when they spent years working to become citizens. Legal immigration may also help us survive as a people.

Conservative writer, Mark Styen wrote in “America Alone.” that in the war against Muslims, immigrants will save “America Alone” because of demographics. Immigrants with their high birth rates will provide a younger generation large enough to support our social programs and to serve in the military. Muslims will beat most other countries because they are multiplying faster than most of the world . Europeans will not be able to support their welfare states much longer.

The Russians know this. They have procreation holidays and give money and prizes to couples who have children. Italy is considering similar family encouragement.

It is always a pleasure to find a new post from both of you. This is one of your best! Helen, you have done a masterful job of homework regarding the number of military bases around the world and thus the extent of US Empiralism

As for Dick Cheney, the more he shoots off his mouth to prove he was, is and always will be right, the more likely he is to convict himself – right into jail. There he would have plenty of time to continue for the rest of his life to believe his misguided convictions.

You are correct in saying we have to educate ourselves. NOBODY does it better than you two! For the most part, with a few exceptions, we are preaching to the choir. We are not very likely to change the minds of many self-absorbed old timers. However, in these days of instant worldwide communication, it may be possible to reach the younger generations; to get them to stop for a minute and think for themselves.

That’s where you come in by informing and educating as well as entertaining. Keep those posts coming!

Aloha!

Jean

P.S. Except for Grandma Rock and me, (with my paternal great-grandmother full-blood Native American Sioux,) how many of you here on this blog can claim that NONE of your ancestors came to America from somewhere else – legally or illegally for all you know.

Every time the dick opens his mouth just smile and remember his poll numbers. If he is the voice of the Republican Party they are truly on the ropes.
Love the idea of Mexicans coming in tanks instead of trunks. Great analogy! You are the best.

What’s sad is that Dick is sure that what he says is the truth, and he has done a lot of bad and illegal things to make sure his ideology is seen as ‘truth’ by the rest of us…..too bad some of us are actually smart and see through it…I”ll bet he didn’t count on that! Doesn’t say much for how he sees his fellow Americans…

James, even though I don’t always agree with you, I benefit from your comments.

I do take issue with your suggestion that it was because he was illegal that that driver caused awful injury and death — the man who nearly killed me in a nasty crash in ’92 was a natural born citizen.

I’m not sure what the answer is for people who come here to try to make a better life — in addition to those, there are of course the others who cause mayhem wherever they are — but I don’t think it’s BECAUSE they’re illegals.

Great post Helen, and Margaret, your swinging cat by the tail made me chuckle much.

James, you really need to hear Obama’s ASU commencement address. It was not about him, but all about those fine young graduates. It wasn’t an easy pass he was giving them, rather challenging them to be and do the most for those in need. It was about not going for the glitz and riches, but making a difference for others. And that one does not rest on ones’ laurels, but continue to do, make, create, share.

One of my favorite parts was when he spoke to certain of the different degrees – if they were graduating with a business degree – start your own business, education degree – teach at the schools most in need of good teachers, etc.

Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rush, Ann, Beck, Hannity need to take a lesson from his speech. Instead, they will probably want to nit pick and blast for no other reason than that they don’t like him. They are the blockers, the liars, the narcissistic. At least GW Bush has moved on.

Cheney & Co hate the idea of Obama for President. They will not see the good being done, and the bad being undone. They are on the other side. What a scary mean bunch of manipulators.

How do you solve a problem like the Dicks of the world? Maybe they will eliminate each other, since Helen’s double flushing doesn’t seem to have done the job.

Although of course I want Obama to live up to his word, I do wonder if these photos would even show anything we haven’t already seen. We saw the original batch from Abu Graibh, we saw HBO’s “Ghosts of Abu Graibh” (and if you haven’t seen it, it’s available and well-done), now we need to figure out what to do about the people who “made it legal” for us to do this stuff (and not the enlisted people who were made to take the fall).

At first i wasn’t sure if this was to be read How to solve problems like dick cheney does, or solving problems similar to that of dick cheney. The former caused visions of waterboarding the problem while screaming “It’s not torture!”, then going on a quail hunt with the problem and shooting it in the face, only to be truely vindicated by forcing the problem to apologize to me on Television.

i was delighted that the post did not go that way but I do have a comment for Margaret. I’m a Lewiston native, but I somehow dodged the influx of Somalians by being away at college. I came home to find alot of discontent with the welfare system’s apparent abuse at the Somalian hands and found sensible, open minded people suddenly involved in sick racial joke-offs. How am I to reconcile the apparent blissfull acceptance of diversity many Mainers claim in the face of a population that is actually 96.5% white and turns tail on these accepting cultural values the second the wind smells sour. I love Maine and its people and I hope that they, my family included, can find it in themselves to remember that about 3 generations ago we were probably immigrants into maine ourselves. I am Quebecqious afterall.

De-Lurkergirl A, that Republican and talk show host you mentioned reek of hypocricy. Obama has made the right decision about the photos. He also said the pictures aren’t all that shocking. Besides our soldiers’ safety, he may be thinking of his own welfare too. Obama will be speaking in Egypt soon, and the juxtiposition of his being in a Muslim country at the height of anger over the new pictures would be a security concern.

I support Obama’s decision to back track on Gitmo. He has also said we may detain the prisoners longer without trial after the Europeans refused to take any of them. Obama is basically following the Bush policy. Many on the left who are major supporters are in an uproar, and I give him credit for standing up to them.

I agree, “just because you can speak doesn’t mean you should,” and that we all have freedom of speech. I think Cheney is speaking out now, because the Democrats made an issue of torture which touches him. He is defending himself by going on the offense, in my opinion.

I agree with Cheney that since we released some records about methods, we need to see records of the results. Reveal the rest of the record, and my guess is Cheney will shut up. If Cheney talks too often, he will become a caricature of how the press wants to portray Republicans. Janeane Garafalo became conservatives’ favorite leftist skapegoat during the Iraq war for the same reason.

Nancy Pelosi is in hot water because she seems to have lied about when she knew about water boarding etc. Jay Rockefeller and Chuck Shummer appear to have known too. Pelosi’s latest story is she was too busy trying to stop the Iraqi war and getting a Democratic president elected. In so many words, she says she worried more about politics than “torture.” As I quoted in another post, the Democrats may need to find an exit strategy.

Isreal is one cause of Muslim anger toward us. From the beginning they have tried to drive Isreal into the sea. Their first attacks were against Jews, but some time after 1980, Muslim extremists realized as Isreal’s major patron, we contributed to its existence. As friends of their enemy, we became their enemy too.

Some of my relatives are Asian legal immigrants. I know Hispanics too. Such people enrich and energize our country. Illegal immigrants are another matter. They are thieves who jump to the head of the line ahead of people who play by the rules. Its true that if I came their situations, I might also be an illegal, but I would deserve to be punished if I was caught.

Illegality has become a noisy issue in Omaha. The area has had problems with identity theft and other crimes before. However this week, and illegal alien with a suspended license ran a red light and seriously injured a mother. Her four year old daughter died today. He got his first drivers license with phony documents in 1998, and after it was suspended, he never got another.

One of my wife’s students became an Eagle Scout last weekend. He is waiting to know if he has been accepted at West Point.

UAW, my stepson is a BSA going for Eagle rank. I have no problem with gun safety training – coming from a family of hunters, I know the importance of that. What I object to is the paramilitary aspect. As for the other aspects you point out for the Explorers, I don’t believe the BSA is providing jet fighter training for the aviation badge, or surgical science for the life sciences badge, nor do they provide training on thermonuclear warhead assembly. Here in FL we have the Sea Scouts – but I don’t believe they are being trained to engage in DEA enforcement off the coasts of this state.

Very good point… I would like to recommend to anyone that wants to know more about the history, and to understand a bit more about this conflict that they read “A concise history of the middle east.” It is one of the best explanations, told from many perspectives that I have ever read.. 🙂

“Membership in the Explorers has been overseen since 1998 by an affiliate of the Boy Scouts called Learning for Life, which offers 12 career-related programs, including those focused on aviation, medicine and the sciences.”

I think that fear of guns has shocked you into thinking that no youngster would even think of being a police officer or even a border agent…

I personally think that training for gun safety and the proper use of firearms is great…should be required in school(could have competition just like basketball)….look up EDDIE EAGLE….

First of all, I LOVE your blog! I’m so happy to have (finally) stumbled across it.

Second of all, I think we need to let any non-criminal Mexican into the country who wants to come in. They are young, healthy and hardworking. Every one of them needs to get a valid social security number. SOMEBODY has got to pay for idle retirees.

BSA to fight terrorists. http://tinyurl.com/ptmtof
So wonder what the merit badge will look like? A dead terrorist emblazoned on a crimson field? A glock silhouette? What’s next? A torture merit badge? How about a merit badge commemorating the BSA’s discrimination against gay people?

First, I loved the shoutout to the Sound of Music; the family channel ran it on Sunday and it had been years since I watched the whole thing from start to finish.

Second, sophronia, thanks for the link to Maureen Dowd. What I appreciated about her column is that she shed light on why Cheney in the Bush 1 administration seemed to be a sensible person (he was apparently muzzled by actually-sensible people advising Bush 1) and then in the Bush 2 administration turned into the evil uncle you all want to disown.

I’m hoping there are enough sensible people left in the GOP to figure out a way to muzzle Dick.

Chalmers Johnson has been warning us of our militarism and imperialistic behavior for decades. Isn’t sad that people are finally starting to realize it after the Bush/Cheney regime?! It took a complete incompetent and his puppet master to make it glaringly real.

My DIL is one of those “blasted Mexicans” who came here to earn, stayed, earned a bachelor’s degree & and master’s degree and is now teaching college and middle school. I guarantee the US is better for her presence, and much of her contribution was before she took her citizenship last year. I’m proud of her. I don’t understand why some US citizens are so afraid of sharing the wealth.

J.
…..Hate, power, fear and ignorance run their party and until someone has the cojones to stand up to the party they will continue to implode……

Oh, I wish!
Nothing against James at all (except discussed disagreements) and even UWA in his better moments, but the braindead fearmongers and hate spiuers (?) are bringing the worst out in me and others………

If we could solve the issue of hate and greed , we could solve everything. Not every Repub is awful, but since Reagan hate for anything that doesn’t fall in the top 2% has been front and center for every policy made. Hate, power, fear and ignorance run their party and until someone has the cojones to stand up to the party they will continue to implode.

Very nice posting ladies…………maybe we should all move to Maine. It seems to be the only state that cares to look forward.

I saw a few minutes of Morning Joe this morning. Joe was talking to a Republican congressman about releasing the torture photos. The photos shouldn’t be released because it puts our troops at risk, right? Now that Obama has decided to fight the order to release them, to prevent increased risk to our troops, this congressman was bashing Obama for not releasing them when he said he would! He said the only answer is that the photos must not be so damaging after all. Obama heard all the arguments for and against and made the decision they wanted him to make, for the (public) reasons they wanted, and they still bash him. Hypocrites.

Then I was listening to talk radio later this morning. I think it’s a local program. One of the hosts was complaining about Obama not living up to his campaign promises. Here we go – the right said all along that it was WRONG to close Gitmo. That it was a terrible threat to our security. And now he’s bashing Obama because he hasn’t closed it fast enough, and doesn’t appear to have a plan yet, even though the order says it should be closed next year. Then they tossed in that these horrible war criminals are going to end up ‘in our neighborhoods’.

I don’t understand these very vocal people. Really I don’t. I keep listening and trying really hard! I can’t just write off people as crazy just because they don’t have the same beliefs that I do, so I try hard to hear their point. However, the more I listen the crazier they seem! I know all Republicans aren’t like Hannity and Steele and Limbaugh… there have to be some thinkers and articulate speakers out there who can take the podium. Why do we never hear from them?

M&H, you must be touching on some nerves. The creeps are flocking to your site. Good for you!

I don’t know if I want Cheney to shut up or not. He has a right to speak, of course, and I’d hate to miss out on the entertainment value of watching him blow himself and his cronies up. But then I think – just because you CAN speak, it doesn’t mean that you SHOULD.

The military bases our nation has established are part of a system of alliances we support which have often been with repressive governments. With our mouth we stand for democracy, and with our actions we support reppression. These old alliances were made to guarrantee our access to oil and strategic locations.

Our president’s forthcoming speech in Egypt is causing comment because Mubarek’s regime is an example of such a repressive regime. There are many who think that Cheney’s push for war with Iraq was for access to oil. We all know what has becom of this idea.

Helen keep calling it as you see it! Margaret it is always delightful to hear from you.

RULE 12: Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it.” Cut off the support network and isolate the target from sympathy. Go after people and not institutions; people hurt faster than institutions. (This is cruel, but very effective. Direct, personalized criticism and ridicule works.)

Love this post! Yes, Amen to common sense!
I truly believe that Dick Cheney is THE face of evil. AWFUL!
War and hate mongerers! They don’t want anyone to be happy ( or wealthy) besides themselves, disgusting!
The GOP is imploding. I’m not too sad about that but I do know some Repulicans that I actually call ” friends” and they’re just as frustrated!

Helen, You are a priceless gem. I pray our brilliant, thoughtful and hilarious president (can that guy tell a joke, or what?) discovers you and Margaret and declares you both a national treasure.

Keep up the poignant and great writing. As a writer myself, when I’m here I’m a) inspired and b) feel like I can’t even spell the word “kat”. That’s how freaking good you are, and I love every letter of it!

And, Dick Cheney is one. Plain and simple. Even his own (fading) party is wishing he’d shut the f up. Where was he the last eight years, I mean when he wasn’t busy shooting innocent animals and his friend in the face? Did someone yell, “Freak Show!” and he felt it was his duty as spokesperson to out himself? (I suppose he learned the art of “coming out” from his daughter. Too bad he didn’t learn tact and bravery from her as well.)

(BTW: If you get the chance, stop by my place. I’ve got an awesome giveaway going on in celebration of my 100th post! I can’t imagine a greater honor than a visit by you and your readers…)

Great post, you two! As for Rush and his spiritual bride, Sarah P., and their spiritual bridesmaid Ann C., yuh gotta understand that they will self-implode, and in public. As for Dick C. (sounds like Dixie), he will be swallowed by his own mouth. I could bet you money (if I had any left) that when the Great Sucking Down happens, someone will trot out all of his look-alikes kept hidden in that Great Undisclosed Location. Dick is some other kind of special case: narcissistic to the hilt and then way beyond, a juvie case right from the start. What does a village in Wyoming do with the local bad boy? Why, send him away. First to Yale where he had a massive adjustment problem and he ricocheted back to Wyoming, then to Washington, D.C. where he seemed to adjust a little better, then to Texas where you all have my sympathy, and then back to D.C. where he revealed himself as the Supreme Sith Lord. but just you wait! Remember, by his own mouth . . .

As for all those U.S. military bases, that all started after WWII. For that matter, the majority of host countries thought they were getting a real deal; i.e., Yankee dollars inasmuch as their own gross domestic product either took a pluperfect hit from the war or they hadn’t any GDP to begin with. Then along came the cold war and saber rattling and the host countries got used to all that $$, and well, you know the story. The fact that some of these countries have oil, an industry that also took a Great Leap Forward after WWII, is the icing on the cake.

As for the differences between cultures that inspire such animosity, don’t get me started!

But, Dios mio! I have no case myself against illegal – or even legal – immigrants. My father would be considered an illegal. He crossed the border with only his talent the same year this country decreed you had to do the visa thing to get in. He was 19. He was a citizen by the time he was 35.

Now that’s wht I am saying. Call the bullshit like it is. We are so full of ourselves in America and we need to wake up. Most of th world wants us there and needs us there. Some of the world doesn’t. The only way we solve this is to get ourselves off the oil. Imagine how much different the world would be if Gore had won and we had soent the last 8 years developing technologies for alternative sources of energy to decrease our dependency on oil. On eday I hope we can tell the Middle East that they can take their oil and their sand and eat it.

In response to larkohio………why do we have to have all of these bases from hither to yon?

I have thought about this before. and why is the US always sticking our noses into other countries business? I have come to the conclusion that the Us is a control freak. We want all countries to be as we are, do things the way we do them, act as we do, say as we do, etc. I could be wrong but I wonder sometimes…..

Dick Cheney needs to go back to that undisclosed location. If he cannot support the president of the United States (like he wanted us to support GWB), then he could politely shut his hypocritical mouth.

A friend of mine and I sat down one day and actually tried to come up with the names of all the countries America had military bases in and it was a long list!
My question is why do we have to have all of these bases from hither to yon?

… and while we’re talking about rush, ann and the rest … don’t forget our own pete sessions!! now THERE’S a flash of brilliance! even cornyn’s going “WTF?” sessions needs to check his meds. i really mean that.